Case 6/2014 – A Case of a 61-Year-old Woman with Diastolic Heart Failure

Clinical aspects

The patient was a 61-year-old woman who developed HF in March 2013, with initial improvement after introduction of a specific treatment. However, 5 months later, she was admitted to the emergency room with decompensated underlying disease, requiring hospitalization.

HF is a complex syndrome resulting from any structural or functional damage to ventricular filling or ejection volume. The cardinal manifestations of HF are dyspnea and fatigue, which in turn may cause exercise intolerance, fluid retention, and pulmonary and systemic congestion. There is no specific diagnostic test for HF because it is primarily a syndrome of clinical diagnosis based on the history and physical exam. The importance of an active search for risk factors or previous cardiovascular disease should be emphasized in determining the etiology for this syndrome.

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