diastolic dysfunction = heart failure?

I recently had an echocardiogram and was diagnosed with "moderate left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, grade 2 ".  Does the mean i have or will eventually get HF? I have an appt with a cardiologist in January and just wondering if anyone else out there with similar diagnosis can shed some light on this.

[Dr_Veena]

Hi,
     Diastolic dysfunction, when not managed properly can lead to heart failure. Grade 2 diastolic dysfunction also known as pseudonormal filling dynamics leads to elevated left atrial pressures and causes symptoms similar to heart failure. If you are asymptomatic, then the goal of treatment is treating the underlying conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes which lead to diastolic dysfunction. Diastolic dysfunction is a chronic condition and can be handled by the patient without any medical treatment.
Diuretics, calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors are usually employed in treatment. Best

[dizmo]

Thanks for ur quick reply Dr. Veena, appreciate it! Quick question, so if i do get the underlying condition under control will my diastolic dysfunction not get any worse which would save me from getting HF? Also, u say that this causes symptoms similar to HF but is not HF, so how do you clinically diagnose HF? Thanks

[dizmo]

ok, i had some time to think about this and would like an honest and blunt answer to this question, if there is one. You did mention that it is a chronic condition, so does this mean it is inevitable for me to develop a more severe form of HF some time down the road? even if the underlying cause were to be normalized. So the only question would be how much time till then?

[Dr_Veena]

Hi,
     By treating the underlying conditions that lead to diastolic dysfunction, the severity of diastolic dysfunction is not worsened and hence does not progress to heart failure. Primarily if you are asymptomatic, main goal of treatment should be managing the underlying conditions. If left untreated diastolic dysfunction does lead to heart failure and this can be diagnosed by echocardiogram, ECG, tread mill test and chest x-ray. Hope this helps. Best.

[kenkeith]

For some insight, DD is a condition that involves the filling phase of the heartbeat cycle.  The pathology of DD is the left ventricle walls become thickened and during the filling phase the rigidity of the walls compromises the filling capacity.

We know that heart failure is the result of an insufficient amount of blood pumped into circulation and the measurement is the percent of blood pumped with each stroke.  So one can have DD and the measurement of EF doesn't change because the heart is pumping the same percentage from a decreased chamber capacity.  If and when the decreased capacity is severally reduced, the cardiac output will not be able to meet the system's demand for oxygenated blood....that would be heart failure.