The enlargement of the ventricles is due to a high end-systolic volume. If the heart is unable to sufficiently pump the expected volume of blood with each contraction, which in a normal healthy heart is 50-60%, there will be a residual volume left in the heart after each pump (Heart Healthy Women, 2012). During the next filling period, the heart will receive the exact amount of blood volume from the atria combined with the residual volume from the previous contraction. This will cause the ventricles to dilate to meet the needs of this increase in volume. This causes the walls of the ventricles to stretch and become thin and weak. The heart's muscular layer, the myocardium, will also stretch and will not be able to make an adequate absolute and forced contraction to push blood from the ventricles (Lehne, 2010). Systolic heart failure is more than twice as common in men than in women (CDC, 2012). The most common causes of systolic heart failure primarily include coronary artery disease, predominantly in females, and hypertension, predominantly in males. Diastolic heart failure (also referred to as right-sided heart failure) is much more common in women and is characterized by an inability of the ventricles to adequately fill with a sufficient volume of blood. This decreases in stroke