Background: Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction can be diagnosed if clinical signs of heart failure and normal ejection fraction are found. Beside clinical signs of heart failure and criteria from catheterization studies like abnormal left ventricular relaxation, filling and/or compliance echocardiography provides valuable parameters for the assessment of diastolic dysfunction.
Echocardiographic degrees of severity: By the use of various parameters diastolic dysfunction can be differentiated into four degrees of severity, which are of great prognostic importance. If more than one echocardiographic parameter is used, sensitivity for the assessment of diastolic dysfunction becomes nearly 100%. Conventional parameters include isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT) measured by pulsed Doppler, the ratio of rapid filling and atrial filling velocity (E/A), deceleration time of rapid mitral inflow as well as the ratio of systolic and diastolic pulmonary venous flow velocities. In patients with signs of diastolic heart failure and a normal E/A ratio pulmonary venous flow pattern can help to unmask "pseudonormalization" as the transition from abnormal relaxation to restriction. These parameters, however, are preload-dependent and do not provide intrinsic left ventricular properties. Even in atrial fibrillation, left ventricular filling pressure can be assessed.
New methods: Two novel approaches, color Doppler M-mode of left ventricular inflow and tissue Doppler of the mitral annulus, are relatively preload-independent and allow direct estimation of relaxation and filling pressure. By the means of real-time 3-D echocardiography we developed a new method for the non-invasive assessment of rapid filling rate (PFR), thereby completing the echocardiographic approaches to determine diastolic dysfunction.
Conclusion: The broad spectrum of approaches available today makes echocardiography the first choice for the assessment of diastolic dysfunction.