Heart failure with a normal left ventricular ejection fraction: diastolic heart failure

A reduced left ventricular ejection fraction measured by echocardiography in a patient with clinical features of heart failure demonstrates that the patient has a cardiac abnormality and that the clinical picture is, in fact, due to heart failure. As such, a reduced ejection fraction (< 0.30 or 0.35) has been used as entry criteria for almost all the large clinical trials that guide our therapy of patients with heart failure. However, it has been recently recognized that a substantial and increasing proportion of patients with heart failure have a normal ejection fraction (> 0.50). Such patients are typically elderly women with systolic hypertension. These patients are subject to the sudden development of pulmonary congestion (flash pulmonary edema). The finding of heart failure in patients with a normal ejection fraction has focused attention on the role of diastolic dysfunction in producing symptomatic heart failure. The optimal treatment of patients with heart failure and normal ejection fraction has not yet been defined, but the control of systolic hypertension and the avoidance of fluid overload are important.