Defining diastolic heart failure: a call for standardized diagnostic criteria.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a major public health problem in developed countries.1–3 It is a significant burden to patients, healthcare providers, and society.2–4 Several hospital-based reports have documented that a high proportion of patients with CHF have normal left ventricular (LV) systolic function,5 and 4 different epidemiological investigations further confirmed that nearly half of CHF subjects in the community have normal LV systolic function.6–9 This condition is commonly referred to as diastolic heart failure (DHF). Hospital readmission rates for patients with DHF are similar to those for patients with systolic heart failure (SHF),10 and it is estimated that DHF accounts for $25% of the total cost of CHF, which is estimated at $15 to $40 billion annually.4,11 A distinction between DHF and SHF is important because DHF is associated with better long-term survival5 and because these 2 forms of heart failure require different therapeutic approaches.