Investigating the European Society of Cardiology Diastology Guidelines in a Practical Scenario

Aims: Recently, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) released a consensus statement for the diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF). It state that E/e' > 15 or <8 clearly define those with or without HFPEF and that for those in the range 8-15, other parameters should be examined.

Methods And Results: We retrospectively analysed 1229 consecutive echocardiograms (57% males) for the utility of echocardiographic measures including left atrial volume index (LAVI), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), and pulmonary venous and mitral inflow Doppler. LAVI of 40 ml/m(2) provided the greatest sensitivity and specificity of 76 and 77%, respectively, with reference to E/e' for the detection of diastolic dysfunction. The ESC definition of raised LVMI yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 32 and 99%, respectively. We found that the mitral and pulmonary inflow provided little incremental information. These results remained consistent between those with normal and abnormal ejection fraction.

Conclusions: There appears to be little incremental value of pulmonary and mitral Doppler measures beyond the measure of mitral E wave. An LAVI cut-off of 40 ml/m(2) maximizes both sensitivity and specificity. However, ESC guidelines of raised LVMI in patients with HFPEF would appear to heavily trade sensitivity for specificity.