Widely confused with cardiac arrest, heart attack and other heart related diseases.
This is the condition when the heart is unable to provide and maintain blood flow required for ones everyday needs.
Shortness of breath, coughing, swelling in the ankle are some of the symptoms of this condition.
Symptoms of Heart Failure can be classified in different ways.
The conditions can be prevalent in the left or the right sections of the heart.
this can occur due to contraction (systolic) or the relaxation (diastolic) phase of the heart.
Whether the condition is due to increased venous pressure behind the heart or due to the arterial pressure in front of the heart.
this can arise out of low or high cardiac output.
Symptoms of heart failure (left-sided) are mainly respiratory related problems.
Left-sided heart failure can occur in the left atrium or the left ventricle or within both.
In such cases the affected person will face Dyspnea.
Dyspnea is the term used to define shortness of breath.
The patients can experience increased difficulty in breathing while in the sleeping posture.
Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, where in the affected person experiences a sudden attack of breathlessness during the night is another such symptom.
Generally such an attack occurs many hours after sleeping.
Breathing difficulties can cause fatigue and inability to exercise.
And bad systemic circulation cause dizziness and confusion.
Increased rate of breathing (tachypnea) is a sign of left sided this daises.
Right sided this can cause blockage and congestion in the systemic network of capillaries of our body.
Hence excess fluid begins to accumulate in the body.
This can cause swelling in foot and the ankle.
Patients can also experience the frequent bouts of urinations at night.
This is known as Nocturia, in which the fluid from the leg returns to the blood when the patient is lying down.
In some cases fluid can tend to accumulate in the abdomen and hepatomegaly-enlargement of the liver can also occur.
Coagulopathy (decreased blood clotting), jaundice and liver congestion are also symptoms of right sided heart failure.
this is common in developing countries.
Symptoms of Heart failure occur at any age and only increases with age.
Early symptom detection increases chances of reversing the affects of this.
this being a common disease, if not cared for can ultimately lead to death of an individual.
The procedures and treatments are costly while they help in prolonging and giving relief to the affected persons.
In the UK 2 percent of the total expenditure of the National Health Service is due to the hospitalization in cases related to Heart Failure.
In the US 35 Billion dollars is the estimated expenditure for treatment of this.
Heart Failure not only has a long standing effect on the physical capacity of the patients.
Even the mental health is affected.
Thus is decreases the quality of ones life.
And the condition in most cases deteriorates with time, with the exception of the conditions in which heart failure is reversible and the symptoms are detected early.