Comparative Analysis of Systolic and Isolated Diastolic Dysfunction

Determining the type of cardiac dysfunction is important for implementing therapeutic strategies and for prognostic insights. We characterized systolic dysfunction (SD) and isolated diastolic dysfunction (IDD) in adults referred for echocardiographic evaluation, and compared their clinical and other characteristics. In the present work, we studied 218 patients (137 males) with cardiac dysfunction (mean age, 66.3 +/- 8.3 years). SD was defined as a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of < 45%, whereas IDD was defined as a LVEF >= 45% in addition to the standard Doppler-cchocardiography diagnostic criteria for IDD. Approximately 68% of subjects had SD (70% males). The proportions of hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia were 44%, 26%, and 22%, respectively, without significant association with the type of dysfunction. Myocardial infarction (MI) was found in 31% of patients. and was significantly (P < 0.001) more prevalent among SD compared with IDD cases. Cerebral stroke (18%) and malignancy (16%) were significantly associated with IDD (29% versus 13% for SD in the case of stroke, and 26% versus 11% for SD in the case of malignancy P = 0.008 for each). In multivariately-adjusted logistic regression analysis, the following variables were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) and independently associated with IDD: female gender (odds ratio [OR] = 2.207 [95% CI=1.302-4,608]), stroke (OR = 2.009 [1.119-3.980]), and malignancy (OR=2.016 [1.2304.010]). On the other hand, previous MI (OR = 2.075 [1.769-4.808]) was independently associated with SD. In conclusion, sonic factors/comorbidities were more likely to associate with IDD (female gender, stroke, and malignancy) or SD (previous MI) when IDD and SD were compared with each other. (Int Heart J 2008; 49: 459-469)