UPDATE! Navigating Diastolic Dysfunction Has Changed

A Comprehensive Guide

Echocardiography is constantly evolving, and staying current with guideline updates is essential to providing the best care for every patient. With the 2025 ASE and EACVI update on diastolic function assessment, we’re revisiting this core topic to highlight what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and how it shapes daily echo practice.

Diastolic dysfunction, often overshadowed by its systolic counterpart, reflects the heart’s impaired ability to relax and fill properly during diastole. Over time, this leads to elevated LV filling pressures, increased LA pressure, and heart failure symptoms—even when ejection fraction is normal, as seen in HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction).

Echocardiography remains the cornerstone for noninvasive diastolic assessment, offering real-time insight into LV relaxation and filling pressures. The 2025 ASE/EACVI update refines this process, emphasizing an integrated, parameter-based approach over single cutoffs.

At The Echo Journal, we break down these new guidelines with practical techniques, measurements, and grading steps, delivered straight to your inbox every week. Invest 20 minutes to stay current and access our full online case library anytime.