Diastolic Dysfunction in Heart Failure With Preserved Systolic Function: Need for Objective Evidence Results From the CHARM Echocardiographic Substudy–CHARMES

OBJECTIVES: We tested the hypothesis that diastolic dysfunction (DD) was an important predictor of cardiovascular (CV) death or heart failure (HF) hospitalization in a subset of patients (ejection fraction [EF] >40%) in the CHARM-Preserved study. BACKGROUND: More than 40% of hospitalized patients with HF have preserved systolic function (HF-PSF), suggesting that DD may be responsible for the clinical manifestations of HF.