Systolic and Diastolic left ventricular dysfunction - Independent types of cardiac failure or two sides of a single process?

At present disturbances of systolic and diastolic myocardial function are subjected to intensive study. Most researches acknowledge possibility of development of diastolic dysfunction in the absence of systolic dysfunction. Meanwhile disturbances of systolic and diastolic myocardial functions have common pathogenetic and pathomorpholigical basis representing the essence of cardiac remodeling. Patients with instrumental signs of pure diastolic dysfunction and subjects with combination of disturbances of systolic and diastolic functions have similar clinical symptoms. This literature review deals with problems of relationship between systolic and diastolic dysfunction and expediency of clear delineation of these disturbances.