Isolated diastolic heart failure as a cause of breathlessness in the community: the Arbroath study

The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of exercise limitation due to diastolic heart failure among patients felt to have cardiac breathle ssness by their general medical practitioner but not referred to hospital. We found that 18% of patients had a simple investigated profile compatible with isolated diastolic dysfunction as a cause of their symptoms. Symptoms appeared to pre-date major cardiac events (infarction; stroke; arrhythmia) that dominated the subsequent clinical course. The patients in this group h ave adverse cardiovascular risk profiles. Obesity was a common co-morbidity which may impair detailed 2-D echocardiographic assessment. (C) 2001 Europ ean Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.