What Is Heart Failure?
Heart failure, it is also known as congestive heart failure in medical terms, is a condition that develops when your heart doesn’t pump enough blood for your body’s needs. This can happen if your heart can’t fill up with enough blood. It can also happen when your heart is too weak to pump properly. The term “heart failure” does not mean that your heart has stopped. However, heart failure is a serious condition that needs immediate medical care.
Heart failure can develop suddenly (the acute kind) or over time as your heart gets weaker (the chronic kind). It can affect one or both sides of your heart. Left-sided and right-sided heart failure may have different causes. Most often, heart failure is caused by another medical condition that damages your heart. This includes coronary heart disease, heart inflammation, high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, or an irregular heartbeat. Heart failure may not cause symptoms right away. But eventually, you may feel tired and short of breath and notice fluid buildup in your lower body, around your stomach, or your neck.
Heart failure can damage your liver or kidneys. It can lead to cardiac arrest also.
Your doctor will diagnose heart failure based on your medical and family history, a physical exam, and results from imaging and blood tests.
Currently, heart failure is a serious condition that has no cure. However, treatment such as healthy lifestyle changes, medicines, some devices, and procedures can help many people have a higher quality of life.
Symptoms
One of the first symptoms you may notice is feeling short of breath after routine activities like climbing stairs. As your heart grows weaker, you may notice this while getting dressed or walking across the room. Some people have shortness of breath while lying flat.
Older adults who do not get much physical activity may not experience shortness of breath. However, they may feel tired and confused.
People who have left-sided heart failure may have the following symptoms.
- Trouble breathing
- Cough
- Fatigue (extreme tiredness even after rest)
- General weakness
- Bluish color of finger and lips
- Sleepiness and trouble concentrating
- Inability to sleep lying flat
People who have right-sided heart failure may also have the following symptoms:
- Nausea (feeling sick in the stomach) and loss of appetite
- Pain in your abdomen (area around your stomach)
- Swelling in your ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, and the veins in your neck
- Needing to pee often
- Weight gain
Heart failure can cause some serious problems.
- Kidney or liver damage is caused by reduced blood flow and fluid buildup in your organs.
- Fluid may build up in or around your lungs.
- Malnutrition from nausea and swelling in your abdomen (the area around your stomach) can make it uncomfortable for you to eat. Reduced blood flow to your stomach can make it harder to absorb nutrients from your food.
- Other heart conditions such as an irregular heartbeat, leaking heart valves, or sudden cardiac arrest can be caused by heart failure.
- Pulmonary hypertension may also be caused by this condition.
Causes and risk factors
The causes and risk factors are same as in case of overall heart diseases like heart attack. To read more please click here.
Diagnosis
The initial diagnosis is done bases on the symptoms information provided by the patients.
- Blood test will be done
- ECG
- Cardiac CT scan, Cardiac MRI,
- Stress Test
- Coronary angiography