Warning signs and symptoms of heart failure include shortness of breath, chronic coughing or wheezing, swelling, fatigue, loss of appetite, and others. Heart failure means the heart has failed to pump the way it should in order to circulate oxygen-rich blood throughout the body.
Symptoms of heart failure can range from mild to severe and may come and go. Unfortunately, congestive heart failure usually gets worse over time. As it worsens, you may have more or different signs or symptoms.
Heart failure can damage your liver or kidneys. Other conditions it can lead to include pulmonary hypertension or other heart conditions, such as an irregular heartbeat, heart valve disease, and sudden cardiac arrest.
Patients may feel a fluttering in the heart (palpitations) or a heartbeat that seems irregular or out of rhythm. This often is described as a pounding or racing sensation in the chest. Lack of Appetite or Nausea When the liver and digestive system become congested they fail to receive a normal supply of blood.
You may have trouble breathing, an irregular heartbeat, swollen legs, neck veins that stick out, and sounds from fluid built up in your lungs. Your doctor will check for these and other signs of heart failure. A test called an echocardiogram is often the best test to diagnose your heart failure.
People with heart failure can also notice a loss of appetite. This is because the liver and stomach can become enlarged, due to excess fluid, making you feel sick (nausea) and have a loss of appetite.
Symptoms can develop quickly (acute heart failure) or gradually over weeks or months (chronic heart failure).
The progression of heart failure can be unpredictable. Patients with heart failure are at risk of dying suddenly so it's important to have conversations early about their wishes for their care.
A test called an echocardiogram is often the best test to diagnose your heart failure. Your doctor can also use this test to find out why you have heart failure, and then monitor your condition going forward every three to six months.
Heart failure symptoms may include: Shortness of breath with activity or when lying down. Fatigue and weakness. Swelling in the legs, ankles and feet.
If you wake up feeling not refreshed, you have daytime sleepiness or if you need to curtail your daytime activity because of lack of energy, these could be signs your heart failure isn't being managed as well as it could be, Dr. Freeman says.
How long can you live with congestive heart failure? In general, more than half of all people diagnosed with congestive heart failure will survive for 5 years. About 35% will survive for 10 years.
Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest. It lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
Actually, heart failure, sometimes called HF, means that the heart isn't pumping as well as it should. Congestive heart failure is a type of heart failure that requires timely medical attention, although sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably.
Circulatory: decreased peripheral pulses, narrow pulse pressure (less than 25 mmHg caused by reduced cardiac output) Respiratory: dyspnea on exertion or at rest, tachypnea, orthopnea, persistent or nocturnal cough, crackles or rhonchi in the lung bases upon auscultation.
Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as an unhealthy diet, smoking, using cocaine or other illegal drugs, heavy alcohol use, and lack of physical activity, increase your risk of heart failure. Heart or blood vessel conditions, serious lung disease, or infections such as HIV or SARS-CoV-2 raise your risk.
Heart failure can be acute, like after a heart attack, or it may develop over time, for example because of permanently high blood pressure or coronary artery disease. Depending on how severe heart failure is, it may go unnoticed, only cause minor symptoms, or really affect your physical fitness.
In general, about half of all people diagnosed with congestive heart failure will survive 5 years. About 30% will survive for 10 years. In patients who receive a heart transplant, about 21% of patients are alive 20 years later.
Tests for heart failure
Tests you may have to diagnose heart failure include: blood tests – to check whether there's anything in your blood that might indicate heart failure or another illness. an electrocardiogram (ECG) – this records the electrical activity of your heart to check for problems.
Patients with congestive heart failure have a high incidence of sudden cardiac death that is attributed to ventricular arrhythmias.
Little robust evidence exists regarding the optimal blood pressure target for patients with heart failure, but a value near 130/80 mmHg seems to be adequate according to the current guidelines.
As the heart weakens, its pumping action also weakens. Blood and body fluids back up in the lungs, abdomen and/or feet and ankles. This excess fluid can make it difficult to breathe. You might also notice a feeling of fullness in the abdomen or swelling in the legs and ankles.
Blood pressure is known to be an independent predictor of outcome in HF, although systolic blood pressure has generally been the focus. We found that lower diastolic blood pressure was the stronger (and only significant) independent prognostic blood pressure measure.
Heart Failure: Quick Facts
About half of people who develop heart failure die within 5 years of diagnosis. 3. Most people with end-stage heart failure have a life expectancy of less than 1 year.