Heart failure due to systolic dysfunction has enormous global impact. Medical management based on an understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease as well as its neurohormonal mechanisms has greatly advanced over the past 25 years. Below is a review of recent and emerging data on epidemiology and diagnosis of heart failure due to systolic dysfunction and the current and future management ...

Diastolic heart failure occurs when signs and symptoms of heart failure are present but left ventricular systolic function is preserved (i.e., ejection fraction greater than 45 percent). The incidence of diastolic heart failure increases with age; therefore, 50 percent of older patients with heart failure may have isolated diastolic dysfunction. With early diagnosis and proper management the pr...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether patients with suspected heart failure but preserved systolic function, as determined by conventional echocardiographic measures (often said to have "diastolic heart failure), might have subtle left ventricular systolic dysfunction detectable by a new measure of left ventricular systolic function-left ventricular systolic atrioventricular plane displacement. DES...

Pathophysiology of heart failure has been considered to be a damaged state of systolic function of the heart followed by a state of low cardiac output that is, systolic heart failure. Even if systolic function is preserved, left ventricular filling in diastole can be impeded and resulted in elevation of filling pressure and symptoms of heart failure. This kind of heart failure is called diastol...

Background Heart failure with preserved systolic function is a clinical syndrome with the same signs and symptoms of classic heart failure. Chagas disease is a major cause of heart failure in Latin America, associated with dilated cardiomyopathy and progressive deterioration of systolic function. There are no previous assessment studies of patients with heart failure and preserved systolic func...

Objective: To test the hypothesis that, when measured in the long axis, left ventricular systolic function is abnormal in patients with diastolic heart failure. Design: A case–control study. Setting: University teaching hospital (tertiary referral centre). Patients: 68 patients with heart failure, 29 with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of > 0.45 and diastolic dysfunction (diastolic...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that, when measured in the long axis, left ventricular systolic function is abnormal in patients with diastolic heart failure. DESIGN A case-control study. SETTING University teaching hospital (tertiary referral centre). PATIENTS 68 patients with heart failure, 29 with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of > 0.45 and diastolic dysfunction (diastol...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Most studies have shown that prognosis of heart failure with preserved systolic function is as poor as that of heart failure with depressed systolic function, although these results may be biased by the fact that these types of heart failure have different characteristics (age, comorbidity, treatment), which can influence prognosis. Our aim was to determine whether s...

The natural course of heart failure with decreased and preserved systolic function is almost identical. The current concept of heart failure where decreased cardiac output plays the major role does not explain this similarity. We suggest a revised concept of heart failure where congestion plays the leading role. While congestion is almost invariably present in heart failure with normal and with...