• Luigi Paolo Badano, Maria C Albanese, Paola De Biaggio, Patrizia Rozbowsky, Daniela Miani, Claudio Fresco, and Paolo M Fioretti.
• Cardiovascular Science Department, Cardiology Unit, A.O. S. Maria della Misericordia, Piazzale S. Maria della Misericordia 15, 33100 Udine, Italy. lbadan@tin.it
• J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2004 Mar 1; 17 (3): 253-61.

AbstractPrevalence of isolated left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction has been reported to be as high as one-third of all heart failure (HF) cases, with an increasing prevalence in the elderly population. However, there is a paucity of prospective data about the prevalence and prognosis of isolated LV diastolic dysfunction in an unselected population of patients hospitalized with HF. Therefore, we prospectively evaluated 179 consecutive patients discharged from our hospital with HF to assess the prevalence of systolic versus diastolic LV dysfunction among patients hospitalized with HF and to compare their demographics, clinical features, self-perceived quality of life (QOL), and 6-month readmission rate and mortality. Among them, 133 (59% men, median age 74 years) showed in sinus rhythm and had no significant primary valvular disease. LV diastolic dysfunction was diagnosed on the basis of the European Study Group on Diastolic HF echocardiographic criteria. QOL was assessed at hospital discharge and 6-month follow-up visit using the Minnesota Living with HF questionnaire. Survival of patients with HF was compared with that of age- and sex-matched general population. In all, 29 patients (22%) had isolated LV diastolic dysfunction and 102 (78%) had prevalent LV systolic dysfunction (ie, LV ejection fraction

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