BMJ  2003;327:1181-1182 (22 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7425.1181

Editorial

Diastolic heart failure

The condition exists and needs to be recognised, prevented, and treated

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Diastolic heart failure refers to the clinical syndrome of heart failure with a preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (0.50 or more) in the absence of major valve disease.¹ About a third of patients with heart failure seen by clinicians have diastolic heart failure as defined above.² A simple classification of heart failure into systolic versus diastolic is useful because the two conditions have a distinctive pathophysiology and different prognoses.

Although diastolic heart failure is common in clinical practice worldwide,^{3 4 5} its existence has been questioned for several reasons. Firstly, investigators have questioned whether these patients truly have heart failure or if they actually have conditions such as obesity or pulmonary disease that can mimic heart failure.⁶ Doubts regarding diastolic heart failure are cast especially because the diagnosis of heart failure is partly a clinical one and prone to error. When the left ventricular ejection fraction is low the diagnosis of heart . . . [Full text of this article]

Boston University School of Medicine, 715 Albany St, Boston, MA 02118 USA (vasan@fram.nhlbi.nih.gov)

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Ahmed, A. (2006). 1 year mortality after first hospital admission for heart failure was similar in patients with preserved or reduced ejection fraction. Evid. Based Med. 11: 185-185 [Full text]  
• Gillespie, N. D (2006). The diagnosis and management of chronic heart failure in the older patient. Br Med Bull 75-76: 49-62 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• (2004). Hit Parade. BMJ 328: 173-173 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

diastolic failure a definite entity

manan vasenwala md, mrcp (uk)
bmj.com, 21 Nov 2003 [Full text]

Diastolic heart failure- how little we still know

Paresh A Mehta
bmj.com, 24 Nov 2003 [Full text]

Every one should know

Radhakrishnan Ramaraj, et al.
bmj.com, 24 Nov 2003 [Full text]

Diastolic heart failure

Habib-ur- Rehman
bmj.com, 28 Nov 2003 [Full text]

Diastolic heart failure in the elderly: a need for a new hemodynamic approach.

Stephane Arques
bmj.com, 29 Nov 2003 [Full text]

Diastolic heart failure- a practical perspective?

Aresh Anwar, et al.
bmj.com, 29 Nov 2003 [Full text]