Congestive heart failure is heart failure that is accompanied by fluid stagnation in the body. What are the causes and symptoms of congestive heart failure? How is the treatment going?

Congestive heart failureis one of the many forms of heart failure that involves a build-up of fluid in the body, resulting in persistentsymptoms. Heart failure is a dangerous disease, the result of many diseases, not only those of the cardiovascular system. Its essence is the insufficient strength with which the heart works, and thus insufficient blood supply to the whole body.

Contents:

  1. Congestive heart failure - causes
  2. Congestive heart failure - types of heart failure
  3. Congestive heart failure - symptoms

Congestive heart failure - causes

There are many reasons for the development of heart failure, the most common are:

  • ischemic heart disease
  • hypertension
  • atrial fibrillation
  • cardiomyopathies
  • congenital heart disease
  • toxins

It also happens that they lead to her:

  • diabetes
  • thyroid disease
  • anemia
  • asthma
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

They all reduce the efficiency of the heart muscle by directly damaging it or forcing it to work too much - too fast or too intense. Symptoms of heart failure often come from other systems and are apparently unrelated to it. Most often he will meet:

  • shortness of breath
  • fatigue
  • puffiness
  • passing more urine at night
  • stomach pains
  • lack of appetite

Diagnosis is most often made on the basis of echocardiography and a reduction in the so-called ejection fraction. There are many groups of drugs available for treatment, including angiotensin converting enzyme blockers. Treatment of the cause of heart failure is extremely important, as well as an adequate amount of exercise and a proper diet, the final method of treating very advanced heart failure is transplantation.

Congestive heart failure - types of heart failure

Heart failure is a very heterogeneous disease, so there are many ways to break it down.Depending on the duration of heart failure, we can distinguish:

  • acute heart failure
  • chronic heart failure

Depending on the history of this disease in the patient:

  • recent heart failure
  • transient heart failure
  • chronic heart failure

Depending on which part of the heart is more failing:

  • left ventricular heart failure
  • right ventricular heart failure
  • biventricular heart failure

Depending on which phase of the heart beat is impaired:

  • systolic heart failure - when the heart does not pump blood strong enough
  • diastolic heart failure - when the heart does not fill with blood properly

Congestive heart failure - symptoms

Finally, some people use the term " congestive heart failure " to describe this condition when there is fluid stagnation in the body, ie sodium and water retention. It most often occurs in the course of the chronic form of heart failure. Congestion occurs when the left ventricle of the heart puts too little pressure on the circulating blood. This causes a reduced flow through the kidneys, filtration is impaired, and therefore less water is moved into the urine. Consequently, the amount of urine produced decreases and the circulating blood increases. The excess fluid causes an increase in pressure in the capillaries. For this reason, it is donated to all organs through which blood flows in greater than normal amount. In addition, the right ventricle does not pump efficiently, so the blood cannot drain freely, which further intensifies the process of fluid passage. Both of these phenomena, i.e. a decrease in urine production and an increase in pressure in the capillaries, cause the symptoms of heart failure to increase:

  • leg swelling appears, legs swell
  • there is abdominal pain, lack of appetite, indigestion, constipation - these symptoms indicate blood stagnation and the presence of fluid in the walls of the stomach and intestines, and sometimes also in the peritoneal cavity, i.e. in the abdomen. Additionally, sometimes these symptoms are accompanied by an enlarged liver
  • enlargement of the veins, especially on the neck, because it is difficult to drain it, the veins in this place are located just under the skin, and are also close to the heart
  • sometimes pain and dizziness
  • shortness of breath and cough - in this case, excess fluid is accumulated in the lungs, and the cause is primarily a disturbed functioning of the left ventricle, which causes an increase in blood pressure in the blood vessels and fluid escape to the lungs

Heart failure

Heart failure means that the heart does not pump enough blood. This heart disease may be evidenced by: constant fatigue, problems with climbing stairs, ankle swelling, drowsiness after eating, cough at night, shortness of breath during exercise. Our expert - prof. Piotr Hoffman, president of the Polish Cardiac Society.

Category:

Cardiology