What is Heart Failure?
Heart failure is a serious condition where your heart cannot pump blood effectively, causing a lack of oxygen to reach your body’s organs and tissues. This condition needs ongoing care and management. This leaflet aims to provide you with important information about heart failure, including its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment options, and lifestyle changes you can make.
Causes of Heart Failure
Heart failure can happen for different reasons, such as:
Blocked or narrow arteries: The blood vessels that supply your heart can become narrow or blocked, reducing blood flow to your heart muscle.
High blood pressure: When your blood pressure is not well controlled, it can gradually weaken your heart muscle and make it less efficient.
Heart valve problems: Issues with your heart valves, like aortic stenosis or mitral regurgitation, can strain your heart and eventually lead to heart failure.
Cardiomyopathy: This is a disease that weakens your heart muscle. There are different types, such as dilated or restrictive cardiomyopathy.
Congenital heart defects: Some people are born with structural problems in their hearts, which can contribute to heart failure later in life.
Abnormal heart rhythms: When your heart beats irregularly, like in atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, it can eventually lead to heart failure if not treated.
Other factors: Conditions like diabetes, obesity, kidney disease, lung disease, and certain medications can also increase your risk of heart failure.
Signs and Symptoms
Heart failure can cause various symptoms, including:
Shortness of breath: Feeling out of breath, especially when you exert yourself or lie down.
Fatigue: Feeling very tired or lacking energy, even with minimal activity.
Swelling: Swelling in your ankles, legs, abdomen, or other body parts due to fluid buildup.
Rapid or irregular heartbeat: Heart palpitations or a heartbeat that feels irregular.
Persistent coughing: A cough that doesn’t go away and may produce pink or white foamy mucus.
Reduced ability to exercise: Finding it difficult to do your regular activities without experiencing symptoms.
Diagnosis
If your doctor suspects heart failure, they may recommend several tests to confirm the diagnosis and find the underlying cause. These tests may include:
Physical examination: Your doctor will listen to your heart and lungs, check for swelling, and look for other signs.
Blood tests: These help assess kidney and liver function, check for heart damage markers, and measure brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels.
Chest X-ray: This can show if your heart is enlarged or if there is fluid in your lungs.
Electrocardiogram (ECG): Records the electrical activity of your heart to check for any rhythm problems.
Echocardiogram: Uses sound waves to create images of your heart, helping evaluate its structure and function.
Stress tests: These assess how your heart responds to physical activity or certain medications.
Cardiac catheterisation: A procedure where a thin tube is inserted into a blood vessel to measure pressures and evaluate blood flow.
Treatment Options
The treatment of heart failure aims to relieve symptoms, improve your quality of life, and slow down the progression of the disease. The following options may be recommended:
Lifestyle changes: Making healthy choices such as following a heart-healthy diet, engaging in regular exercise, managing stress, quitting smoking, and limiting alcohol intake.
Medications: Your doctor may prescribe different medications, such as diuretics to reduce fluid build up, ACE inhibitors or ARBs to lower blood pressure, beta-blockers to improve heart function, aldosterone antagonists to reduce strain on the heart, and SGLT2i to help relieve strain on the heart.
Devices: In some cases, devices like implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) or cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) devices may be recommended to help regulate your heart’s rhythm and improve its pumping function.
Surgical interventions: In certain situations, surgery may be needed to repair or replace damaged heart valves or to bypass blocked arteries.
Remember, heart failure is a chronic condition that requires ongoing care. It’s important to work closely with your healthcare team, take your medications as prescribed, and make lifestyle changes to manage your condition effectively. By doing so, you can lead a fulfilling life while keeping your heart as healthy as possible.
