Diastolic Heart Failure

Diastolic heart failure or diastolic dysfunction refers to decline in performance of one (usually the left ventricle) or both (left and right) ventricles of the heart during the time phase of diastole. Diastole is that phase of the cardiac cycle when the heart is not contracting to propel blood out (systole) to the body, brain and lungs but instead is relaxing and filling with incoming blood that is being returned from the body through the inferior vena cava (IVC) from the lungs through the pulmonary veins and from the brain through the superior vena cava (SVC).