Early Diagnosis of Diastolic Dysfunction and Reliability of DSE in Detecting Stress Diastolic Dysfunction

The heart becoming "stiff" due to increased fibrous tissue or decreased elasticity of the heart tissue is one of the earliest changes caused by heart failure. These changes can be detected by simple non-invasive echocardiogram techniques. However, these techniques usually detect the increased "stiffness" of the heart only after it has progressed to a significant extent. The investigators hypothesize that if they stress the heart using a Dobutamine infusion and measure the filling pressure using echocardiogram, it will provide them with tools to identify these changes earlier.