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Diastology 2010: clinical approach to diastolic heart failure

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Abstract

The role of echocardiography in the evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function is increasingly important in both systolic and diastolic heart failure. In routine clinical practice, the diastolic dysfunction associated with diastolic heart failure can mainly be evaluated by Doppler echocardiography. In order to use echocardiographic techniques for this purpose, one should recognize the definition, terminology, epidemiology, and pathophysiology of diastolic dysfunction and diastolic heart failure. There are various echocardiographic parameters for this purpose, including transmitral flow velocity, pulmonary venous flow velocity, mitral annular velocity, flow propagation velocity, left atrial size, strain, strain rate, twist, and so on. However, no single Doppler echocardiographic index has yielded a robust criterion for diastolic dysfunction and elevated left ventricular filling pressure. Thus, multiple indices are required to increase the sensitivity of the diagnosis. Clinicians who take care of heart failure patients should continue to make critical use of a current Doppler echocardiographic evaluation and utilize this information to improve survival and quality of life in these patients.

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Abbreviations

HF:

Heart failure

LV:

Left ventricle, left ventricular

EF:

Ejection fraction

LA:

Left atrial

RFP:

Restrictive filling pattern

E :

Peak early diastolic transmitral flow velocity

A :

Atrial systolic transmitral flow velocity

DT:

Deceleration time of the early diastolic flow velocity wave

PVS1 :

First systolic pulmonary venous flow velocity

PVS2 :

Second systolic pulmonary venous flow velocity

PVD:

Diastolic pulmonary venous flow velocity

PVC:

Pulmonary venous flow velocity at mitral valve closure

AR:

Atrial reversal pulmonary venous flow velocity

e′ :

Early diastolic mitral annular velocity

a′ :

Atrial systolic mitral annular velocity

TE-e′ :

Time interval between the onset of the early diastolic transmitral flow velocity and that of the early diastolic mitral annular velocity

V p :

The slope of the flow propagation velocity

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Institute of Health Bioscience Research, The University of Tokushima Graduate School of Medicine, Tokushima, Japan

    Hirotsugu Yamada

  2. Department of Cardiovascular Imaging, Heart and Vascular Institute, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Desk J1-5, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA

    Allan L. Klein

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  1. Hirotsugu Yamada
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  2. Allan L. Klein
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Correspondence to Allan L. Klein.

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Yamada, H., Klein, A.L. Diastology 2010: clinical approach to diastolic heart failure. J Echocardiogr 8, 65–79 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12574-010-0055-8

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