The treatment of diastolic heart failure.

Recommendations for the treatment of diastolic heart failure must be based on theoretical issues. Evidence-based outcomes from clinical trials are not available at this time, but there is an increasing mandate for more focused studies for this clinical disorder. Meaningful outcomes require delineation of patient populations, including identification of underlying disease and comorbid cardiovascular disorders. Until such information is available, we must rely on an understanding of the natural history of associated disorders, extrapolation of treatment strategies that are successful for systolic heart failure management, and use of pharmacologic agents that empirically target the observed hemodynamic abnormalities of diastolic heart failure.