HEART FAILURE

Heart failure occurs when heart is unable to pump to maintain normal blood flow to meet body’s needs. Symptoms are shortness of breath, excessive tiredness and leg swelling. Shortness of breath is worst while doing exercise and lying down.

Causes of heart failure include coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, previous heart attack, atrial fibrillation, vulvular heart disease, excess alcohol use. They cause heart failure by changing either the structure or functioning of heart.

 The major signs and symptoms of heart failure

 

There are two main types of heart failure. One is due to the dysfunction of left ventricles to contract. The second is due to normal ejection fraction.The heart failure is not the same as heart attack (coronary infarction) in the sense part of the heart muscles die or cardiac arrest when blood flow completely stops.

Other causes leading to heart failure are obesity, kidney failure, liver problems, anemia and thyroid diseases. 

Diagnosis is carried out by echocardiography, blood tests, electrocardiography and chest radiography. Heart failure is a physiological state in which blood output is insufficient to meet the needs of the body.

Congestive heart failure occurs when there is a high demand of blood. The ventricular function is normal but heart is unable to meet the extraordinary demand of blood by body. This can occur due to kidney diseases, chronic severs anemia, beriberi.

 A man with congestive heart failure and marked jugular venous distension. External jugular vein marked by an arrow.

The heart of a person with heart failure may have a reduced force of contraction due to overloading of the ventricles to the point where heart muscle contraction becomes less efficient.