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Congestive Heart Failure - Health Tips
Steven Grossman, MD, FACC, Cardiologist, Associate Director, Cardiac Rehabilitation, St. Joseph's Healthcare System, is here to bring you more information about Congestive Heart Failure and its symptoms and diagnosis along with treatment options to consider.
Congestive Heart Failure is the most frequent cause for hospitalizations in the US. It is the failure of the heart to pump sufficient blood to the body and/or the failure of the heart to empty blood adequately. It is caused by Coronary Artery Disease, Coronary Ischemia, Hypertension, Faulty Heart Valves, Leaking or Insufficient Heart Valves, or Sticky Heart Valves.
Patients that are most at risk are those that suffer from coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, alcohol abuse, and those who have a family history of cardiomyopathies. Symptoms include: shortness of breath (with mild physical activity especially when lying down), fatigue (decreased exercise capacity), edema (swelling of the legs), weight gain (unexplained increased abdominal girth without increase in food consumption), a non-productive cough, a cold (that lingers for weeks or months despite antibiotic therapy), or decreased appetite (especially is associated with weight gain).
Your physician can see noticeable signs that clue them in to the diagnosis including distended neck veins, increased fluid in lungs, heart enlargement, heart murmurs, enlarged liver and swollen legs which are noticeable in a routine exam. From there an x-ray may show an enlarged heart or fluid in the lungs. EKGs may reveal heart attacks or thickening of the heart muscle or insufficient blood flow to the heart. If Congestive Heart Failure is suspected from this finding the most important clinical clue would be an echocardiogram, exercise stress test with nuclear imaging or coupled with echocardiograms. For those who cannot exercise pharmacological stress nuclear imaging can be performed. Treatment options include medication, life modifications including a lower salt diet, weight loss and regular exercise as tolerated.
It's important to understand that Congestive Heart Failure frequently develops slowly over time and the symptoms that we talked about can develop suddenly so keep them in mind and see your general practitioner annually to assure you are making the diagnosis early when therapy can be most effective.
