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What is Congestive Heart Failure or CHF? Human body is made up of living cells that require a constantly oxygen and nutrients delivered to the cells by the blood, pumped by the heart within a closed circuit. If the heart weakens, the blood pumped is reduced and Heart failure could occur. The rising back pressure of blood in a failing or weakened heart is faced by the other organs of the body like liver, lungs, legs, etc. that empty into the pump. These organs get congested with fluid as a result of the phenomena descripted. This situation of the body is known as congestive heart failure or CHF and its effect directly impacts on all areas that it supplies blood. Heart failure is a common condition that affects more than 4.5 million people with nearly half a million new cases being diagnosed each year and each year, approximately a quarter of a million people die from heart failure in the USA. |
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What are the causes and symptoms of CHF? The most common cause is by far coronary artery diseases (>60%), but we could also include hypertension or high blood pressure (4%), toxic injury to the heart from high levels of alcohol, viral infection, etc. (2-4%), heart valves diseases (4%), unknown or idiopathic causes (20%) or rare cases related to pregnancy. When a person with heart failure performs a physical activity the weakened heart is unable to proportionately increase blood supply to the arms and legs. This results in fatigue during exertion. In case of reduced blood supply to the brain the effect may be dizziness. All organs return blood to the heart. If the heart begins to fail or weaken, it is unable to pump blood forward as quickly as it receives it causing pressure increase within all the organs: lungs get congested become stiffer and it takes more of an effort to breathe. Secondly, fluid starts to escape into the air sacs (alveoli) interfering with oxygen exchange and aggravating shortness of breath. Other pathologies related can be pulmonary or lung edema. In a weakened or failing heart, the back-up of fluid and pressure from lower part of the body is not enough. This increased congestion within the feet and legs causes fluid to "seep" out or escape from the blood vessels. Finally the patient could suffer an increasing of body weight, ss a result of edema in the legs, feet, hands or abdominal cavity and other parts of the body, more than 5kg of free water may be present in the tissue of the body. Diastolic heart failure or CHF? Left ventricle (LV) is the major pumping chamber of the heart empties during systolic phase whereas LV filling is called diastole. CHF usually refers to failure or weakness of the pumping or systolic action of the heart even if CHF can also occur in patients with preserved systolic function but with diastolic problems or inadequate filling of the LV. Heart walls are made up of elastic muscle which stretches when it is filled up with blood returned by the body. In CHF condition LV becomes stiffer and not enough elastic if it severely suffer, for a long time, uncontrolled high blood pressure or heart disease like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. |
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