Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2022; 10(32): 12052-12055
Published online Nov 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i32.12052
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: A distinct heart failure phenotype?
Filippos Triposkiadis, Grigorios Giamouzis, John Skoularigis, Andrew Xanthopoulos
Filippos Triposkiadis, Grigorios Giamouzis, John Skoularigis, Andrew Xanthopoulos, Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa 41110, Greece
Author contributions: Triposkiadis F and Xanthopoulos A wrote the letter; Giamouzis G and Skoularigis J revised the letter, and all authors made substantial contributions to conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; drafted the article or made critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript; and gave final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Andrew Xanthopoulos, FACC, MD, PhD, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Larissa, Mezourlo, Larissa 41110, Greece. andrewvxanth@gmail.com
Received: July 20, 2022
Peer-review started: July 20, 2022
First decision: September 5, 2022
Revised: September 15, 2022
Accepted: October 13, 2022
Article in press: October 13, 2022
Published online: November 16, 2022
Processing time: 110 Days and 10.8 Hours
Abstract

The present work discusses the serious confusion resulting from the arbitrary nomenclature of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), the presumed underlying pathophysiology, and the supposed features. A consequence of this misconception is that HFpEF trials have recruited patients with entirely different characteristics rendering the extrapolation of the results of one study to the other infeasible and dramatically affecting diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: Heart failure; Preserved; Nomenclature; Left ventricular ejection fraction; Pathophysiology; Phenotypic persistence

Core Tip: Heart failure (HF) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) raises serious confusion resulting from the arbitrary nomenclature, the presumed underlying pathophysiology, and the supposed features, all of which dramatically impact patient management. HFpEF predominantly represents a group of distinct diseases and not a specific HF phenotype which exhibits phenotypic heterogeneity.