Elsevier

Journal of Cardiology

Volume 57, Issue 2, March 2011, Pages 148-159
Journal of Cardiology

Review
Heart failure due to abnormal filling function of the heart

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjcc.2011.01.001Get rights and content
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Summary

Symptoms of heart failure can be caused by the diastolic dysfunction even in patients with normal ejection fraction, and this condition has been called diastolic heart failure. After Kitabatake and his associates first used echo-Doppler to characterize the transmitral flow velocity in various disease states in 1982, there have been remarkable advances in the evaluation of diastolic function with Doppler echocardiography. Types of diastolic dysfunction can be classified into relaxation abnormality, pseudonormal, reversible restrictive physiology, and irreversible restrictive physiology. Classifying the patients into these types, in addition to the reliable estimation of left ventricular filling pressure with Doppler echocardiography, enables us to adjust treatment in individual patients and to get information about the prognosis. The main hemodynamic abnormality in patients with diastolic dysfunction is the abnormal filling function of the heart. Therefore, if we expand the scope of diastolic heart failure, patients with constrictive pericarditis can also be categorized into diastolic heart failure. The purpose of this review is to refine our knowledge in the concept of diastolic dysfunction and to update the methods used in its’ evaluation.

Keywords

Diastolic heart failure
Doppler echocardiography
Left ventricular filling pressure
Constriction

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