Heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem. Clinical studies suggest that a significant proportion of patients with HF have preserved ejection fraction, a clinical syndrome commonly referred to as diastolic HF (DHF). One of the purposes of epidemiological studies is to identify unmet public health needs in a population and to quantify the magnitude of the problem in a manner that is free from the referral bias inherent in clinical studies. We review current epidemiological data estimating the prevalence of DHF, highlight the challenges posed by existing data, and suggest focus for future studies on the epidemiology of DHF. We limited the review to studies that met our definition of population-based studies (eg, studies drawing participants from a defined community or all consecutive referrals to a health facility that is the sole provider to a defined community). Studies relevant to the epidemiology of each stage of DHF (American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association stages A-D) were reviewed. These epidemiological studies clearly define the magnitude of this health care problem and underscore the urgent need for studies elucidating the natural history, pathophysiology, and optimal diagnostic and management strategy for this extremely common clinical syndrome.

中文翻译：

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舒张性心力衰竭的流行病学。

心力衰竭（HF）是主要的公共健康问题。临床研究表明，大部分HF患者保留了射血分数，这是一种通常称为舒张性HF（DHF）的临床综合征。流行病学研究的目的之一是确定人群中未满足的公共卫生需求，并以无临床研究固有的推荐偏见的方式量化问题的严重性。我们回顾了估计DHF患病率的当前流行病学数据，重点介绍了现有数据带来的挑战，并提出了未来DHF流行病学研究的重点。我们将审查限于符合我们基于人群的研究定义的研究（例如，研究吸引来自特定社区的参与者或所有连续转诊的医疗机构，后者是特定社区的唯一提供者）。回顾了与DHF各个阶段的流行病学相关的研究（美国心脏病学会/美国心脏协会的AD阶段）。这些流行病学研究清楚地定义了这一医疗保健问题的严重性，并强调了对阐明这种极其常见的临床综合征的自然病史，病理生理以及最佳诊断和治疗策略的研究的迫切需求。