title: The physiological basis of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction.
abstract: Overall cardiac pump function requires adequate ventricular diastolic filling as well as normal systolic ejection. Abnormalities of the rate or extent of myocardial relaxation (diastolic dysfunction) have been described in a large variety of clinical conditions, including hypertrophy, ischemia, and after cardiac surgery. Diastolic and systolic dysfunction can be readily distinguished by analysis of pressure volume loops and utilization of echocardiography or nuclear cardiology gated blood pool scans. The mechanisms by which diastolic dysfunction can occur may be structural (hypertrophy, fibrosis) or dynamic (hypoxia, ischemia, alteration of diastolic cytosolic calcium levels). Hypertrophied myocardium is particularly susceptible to diastolic dysfunction by virtue of both structural changes (increased LV mass and interstitial fibrosis) and greater susceptibility to develop impaired myocardial relaxation during hypoxia or ischemia than nonhypertrophied myocardium.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Muscle Research Laboratory, Boston University School of Medicine, MA 02118.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Apstein
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Lorell
mesh_terms: D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D003971:Diastole / Q000502:physiology*; D004452:Echocardiography; D015637:Gated Blood-Pool Imaging; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*