Heart failure,
also known as congestive heart failure, 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 medical care. Show
More than 6 million adults in the United States have heart failure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children can also have heart failure, but this health topic focuses on heart failure in adults. 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. Other conditions it can lead to include pulmonary hypertension or other heart conditions, such as an irregular heartbeat, heart valve disease, and sudden cardiac arrest. 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. Visit the Living With section to learn more. Visit The Heart Truth to learn about heart disease in women. What is heart failure?Heart failure is a condition that occurs when the heart can’t pump as well as it should. This may happen when the heart muscle becomes weak or stiff. As a result, it doesn’t deliver enough blood to the rest of the body. When the body doesn’t get enough blood, it doesn’t get enough oxygen and nutrients. Heart failure can become life-threatening, so the condition requires medical attention. What You Need to Know
What causes heart failure?Heart failure is usually caused by another health problem. The three most common causes of heart failure are:
Other heart failure causes include:
In addition, some medications can worsen heart failure or interfere with heart medicines, including:
What are the symptoms of heart failure?People can experience heart failure differently. Sometimes symptoms appear suddenly, and sometimes they develop slowly over time. The most common heart failure symptoms are shortness of breath and swelling in the lower body. Types of Heart FailureThe main types of heart failure are named for where they occur in the heart:
Clinicians also may classify heart failure as:
Left-sided heart failureLeft-sided heart failure involves the left ventricle (bottom left chamber of the heart). When the left ventricle doesn’t pump enough blood, it backs up in the blood vessels that carry blood away from the lungs. It’s the most common type of heart failure, and tends to cause breathing symptoms. Left-sided heart failure can be classified further as heart failure with reduced or preserved ejection fraction:
Ejection fraction is the percentage of blood the left ventricle of the heart pumps out with every beat. A normal, healthy ejection fraction is 55% to 65%. Right-sided heart failureRight-sided heart failure involves the right ventricle (bottom right chamber of the heart). When the right ventricle doesn’t pump well, blood backs up in the blood vessels that carry blood from the rest of the body back to the heart. This can push fluid out of the veins and into other tissue, often leading to swelling. Biventricular heart failureBiventricular heart failure is a combination of left-sided and right-sided heart failure. It involves both sides of the heart, and can cause a mix of both types of symptoms. Acute versus chronic heart failureAcute heart failure is any heart failure that develops suddenly, such as after a heart attack or with arrhythmia. Chronic heart failure develops over time from medical conditions such as long-term hypertension (high blood pressure) or coronary artery disease. Congestive heart failureMany people use the terms heart failure and congestive heart failure interchangeably. Congestive heart failure involves fluid backing up into the body’s tissues to the point that the tissues get congested and patients have symptoms. The symptoms and complications can become life-threatening, requiring timely medical attention. How is heart failure diagnosed?Your health care team may use a variety of strategies and tests to diagnose heart failure. History and physical examA clinician listens to your heart and lungs and measures your blood pressure and weight. They will also ask about your:
Blood testsBlood tests can measure several things related to heart failure:
Imaging and other testsOther tests provide pictures of the heart and surrounding structures or show how well the heart is working:
What are the four stages of heart failure?There are two classification systems for heart failure, which indicate how severe the condition is. Your doctor might use one or both systems. NYHA Functional Classification SystemThe New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification considers heart failure symptoms that happen during exercise to determine stage. Patients can go back and forth between stages depending on how well-controlled symptoms are on a given day.
ACC/AHA classification systemThe American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) developed a separate system to classify heart failure. Once you reach a specific stage, you remain there or progress, but you do not go backward.
How is heart failure treated?We have many proven treatments to improve heart function, symptoms and survival for patients. Treatments also improve quality of life by:
Education and lifestyle choicesEducation is an important part of heart failure treatment. Your team will talk with you about the importance of:
Medications for heart failureCertain medications can help treat heart failure and its underlying cause:
Other medications can relieve the heart failure symptoms:
Surgery for heart failureYour doctor may recommend surgery to implant a medical device that helps the heart function more effectively:
People with advanced heart failure may be candidates for heart transplantation. A heart transplant replaces the diseased heart with a donated heart from a person who has died. What are the possible complications of heart failure?Complications of heart failure include:
What is heart failure versus heart attack and cardiac arrest?Heart failure, heart attack and cardiac arrest are different kinds of heart disease. They can be related to each other, but they’re not the same thing. With heart failure, the heart keeps pumping, just not as effectively. With heart attack (myocardial infarction), blood flow to the heart is blocked, and heart muscle begins to die. Cardiac arrest means the heart stops beating. How do you know if someone has congestive heart failure?People with heart failure are often unable to do their normal activities because they become easily tired and short of breath. C = Congestion. Fluid buildup in the lungs can result in coughing, wheezing, and breathing difficulty.
What is the most common cause of congestive heart failure?The most common cause of congestive heart failure is coronary artery disease. Risk factors for coronary artery disease include: high levels of cholesterol and/or triglyceride in the blood. high blood pressure.
What is the first stage of heart failure?Common early symptoms of heart failure include: shortness of breath. difficulty exercising. fatigue and weakness.
What are the two main symptoms of heart failure?Symptoms. Breathlessness or Shortness of Breath (Dyspnea) When the heart begins to fail, blood backs up in the veins attempting to carry oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart. ... . Fatigue As heart failure becomes more severe, the heart is unable to pump the amount of blood required to meet all of the body's needs.. |