title: Noninvasive assessment of systolic and diastolic function. Important clues to differentiating types of congestive heart failure.
abstract: The clinical distinction between systolic and diastolic dysfunction as the cause for congestive heart failure (CHF) is readily made with noninvasive diagnostic testing. Patient history, physical examination, chest films, and electrocardiography provide readily obtainable clues to the presence of left ventricular dysfunction. Noninvasive imaging methods are an important quantitative adjunct in evaluation. Among these, echocardiography and radionuclide angiography are the most widely available and accepted techniques. Other advances, such as new radionuclide imaging agents, cine magnetic resonance imaging, and cine computed tomographic scanning, may also be useful in selected circumstances. Functional assessments using ventilatory gas analysis can aid in the evaluation of patients with CHF and in the timing of intervention with cardiac transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Division, University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville 22908.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Bergin
mesh_terms: D003971:Diastole; D004452:Echocardiography; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D013599:Systole; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology