Preclinical stiff heart is a marker of cardiovascular morbimortality in apparently healthy population

Abstract

Left ventricular (LV) stiffness is de ined by the relationship between pressure and volume [1]. Increased LV stiffness is found in ventricular hypertrophy, ischemic heart disease, end-stage LV dysfunction and senescent heart leading to heart failure and preserved ejection fraction. Stiff heart puts the patient at increased risk for pulmonary capillary hypertension, impairs exercise capacity and plays a role to the transition from compensated to decompensated heart failure [2-4]. Changing the ventricular PV relationship by therapy could be an exciting prospect if the question to detect non-invasively increased LV stiffness and to link stiff heart to prognosis is solved.