Diastolic Cardiac Failure Facts

Diastolic cardiac failure is a medical condition where diastolic dysfunction leads to pulmonary congestion or blood filling up in the lungs. The ventricles are the heart's pumping chambers. When they become unable to fill up with blood, they cause blood to dam up in various organs of the body, mainly the lungs. This condition is known as diastolic dysfunction and when acute, causes diastolic heart failure. Medical evidence in recent times has proven that the disease strikes about 15% of the patients aged less than 50 years and about 50% of those older than 70. It afflicts mainly women, with 75% of the patients being women.
The common symptoms of the disease include pulmonary congestion; periods of high blood pressure, especially the systolic blood pressure increasing; atrial fibrillation, a condition characterized by disturbances in the heart's rhythms; and also other kinds of rapid rhythmic cycles of the heart. A common symptom of diastolic heart failure is flash pulmonary edema, which leads to severe breathlessness. The primary causes of diastolic congestive heart failure are chronic high blood pressure, coronary artery disease; restrictive cardio myopathy, which is a rare condition where the heart muscles become stiff; and aging. It is however, a moot point whether aging alone or some other medical condition causes the ventricles to thicken. Hypertrophic cardiac myopathy, a condition where the muscles of the ventricles thicken, and aortic stenosis, whence the aortic valve is obstructed partially, too may cause diastolic heart failure.
Echocardiography is effective in identifying diastolic dysfunction and also determining its causes. Effective diastolic heart failure treatment aims to attack the root causes of the disease. Aggressively controlling both the systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels; treating coronary artery disease; managing atrial fibrillation and especially restoring a normal rhythmic cycle in patients with diastolic dysfunction; and controlling pulmonary congestion with diuretics are some commonly followed diastolic heart failure treatment methods. If the cause of the diastolic dysfunction is not determined, then the treatment methodology can take these courses-looking for a hitherto undiagnosed coronary artery disease with exercise testing and improving the diastolic functionality of the heart through an aerobic exercise routine. The spotlight on diastolic heart failure has intensified with more and more cases being diagnosed in recent years. Patients who have suffered an episode of diastolic heart failure stand a better chance than patients with systolic heart failure.
They are however, more at risk than patients without heart failure or diastolic dysfunctional conditions. They should thus be monitored and treated even after episodes of heart failure have subsided. Keep a lookout for any abnormalities in the heart's rhythms, do not neglect a coronary artery disease, ensure that your blood pressure is within acceptable limits, go in for aerobic exercises, and visit your cardiologist regularly; these will go a long way in keeping diastolic cardiac failure at bay.