Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: current status and challenges for the future

Excerpt

Over the past two decades it has become evident that more than 50 % of all heart failure patients suffer of heart failure with preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (HFpEF), previously called diastolic heart failure because of important involvement of diastolic LV dysfunction. The advances and current status of HFpEF research are described in this special focus issue of the Netherlands Heart Journal. HFpEF is the most common heart failure phenotype in ageing societies, highly prevalent in elderly women and frequently accompanied by comorbidities which result from a detrimental lifestyle, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus and salt-sensitive arterial hypertension [1]. Despite modern heart failure therapy, the prognosis of HFpEF has not improved over the last decades. By 2020, the prevalence of HFpEF is projected to exceed 8 % of persons older than 65 years of age and because of the current pandemic of obesity, the prevalence of HFpEF in persons younger than 65 years of age is expected to rise exponentially. …