Provocative Tests for Diagnosing and Phenotyping Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Diagnosing heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) in patients complaining exertional breathlessness can be challenging: diagnostic algorithms and scores have low sensitivity, and ageing-associated comorbidities can complicate the interpretation of symptoms. Thus, exercise right heart catheterization (RHC) or invasive cardiopulmonary exercise test (iCPET) have been advocated as gold-standard methods for HFpEF diagnosis. However, exercise RHC and iCPET are still not widely standardized methods, with results mainly coming from US cohorts (that may differ from Italian cohorts), and other provocative tests (e.g. non-invasive CPET, passive leg raising) may offer complementary diagnostic information.