Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the heart to fill with or pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body. It is not to be confused with "cessation of heartbeat", which is known as asystole, or with cardiac arrest, which is the cessation of normal cardiac function with subsequent hemodynamic collapse leading to death. Because not all patients have volume overload at the time of initial or subsequent evaluation, the term "heart failure" is preferred over the older term "congestive heart failure". Congestive heart failure is often undiagnosed due to a lack of a universally agreed definition and difficulties in diagnosis, particularly when the condition is considered "mild".

The usual heart irritants can make CHF deadly: arterial plaque, stress, smoking, old age, lack of exercise, overworked heart, and obesity. In genetic family history of CHF, the cause is a weak heart having thinner muscle walls than usual, and often weakened further by one or more of the above heart irritants. Arterial plaque lines the inside of the arteries that supply the heart and the rest of the body, meaning less blood gets to the heart itself, as well as the heart having to work harder to push blood through the thinner systemic arteries. The result is irregular heart beats causing inefficient blood pumping and a tired heart.

Symptoms of decompensated left heart failure include dyspnea on exertion, orthopnea, fatigue and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, nocturnal cough, confusion and memory impairment, and diaphoresis and cool extremities at rest. Symptoms of right heart failture include: Peripheral edema, ascites, nocturia, Jugular venous distention, Epistaxis, Hepatomegaly, hepatojugular reflux, and right ventricular heave.

The treatment of CHF focuses on treating the symptoms and signs of CHF and preventing the progression of disease. If there is a reversible cause of the heart failure (e.g. infection, alcohol ingestion, anemia, thyrotoxicosis, arrhythmia, or hypertension), that should be addressed as well. Reversible cause treatments can include exercise, eating healthy foods, reduction in salty foods, and abstinence of smoking and drinking alcohol.

...More at Wikipedia

Related Links:

• American Heart Association
• US National Library of Medicine
• Mayo Clinic

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