Constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy

Approximately 50% of all patients with newly diagnosed congestive heart failure in developed countries have a normal ejection fraction,1 most of which are due to a myocardial disease resulting in diastolic heart failure.2 Among many etiologies of diastolic heart failure, restrictive cardiomyopathy constitutes only a very small proportion of the total cases. Because diastolic heart failure implies an intrinsic myocardial abnormality in diastolic function, constrictive pericarditis may not be classified as diastolic heart failure, although its main hemodynamic burden arises from the diastolic phase.