If you cough a lot, often feel weak, have lost your appetite, and need to urinate a lot at night, you might have symptoms of heart failure. Heart failure is a long-term condition that usually comes on slowly. However, it can develop suddenly, for instance, after a heart attack.
... swelling in the feet, ankles, legs, fingers, abdomen and in other tissues and organs. As a result, weight gain is common. If you have heart failure, your heart doesn't pump with enough force. This means that not enough blood is pumped out of the heart with each heartbeat.
“Getting diagnosed with heart failure usually starts when you notice symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, rapid or irregular heartbeat or swelling in the legs, ankles, feet or abdomen,” says Dr. Piña.
High blood pressure.
High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease. It is a medical condition that happens when the pressure of the blood in your arteries and other blood vessels is too high.
People with heart failure may feel constantly tired and have difficulty performing daily activities such as walking, climbing stairs or carrying groceries. Exercise intolerance and fatigue are often the most common symptoms of heart failure.
Heart failure can involve the heart's left side, right side or both sides. However, it usually affects the left side first.
The life expectancy for congestive heart failure depends on the cause of heart failure, its severity, and other underlying medical conditions. In general, about half of all people diagnosed with congestive heart failure will survive 5 years. About 30% will survive for 10 years.
Unusual swelling in the legs, feet, hands, or abdomen. A persistent cough or chest congestion (the cough may be dry or hacking) Increasing fatigue or a sudden decrease in your ability to do normal activities. A loss of appetite or nausea.
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.
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.
However, life expectancy for a person with CHF has substantially improved over time. A person's age at diagnosis may impact prognosis. The authors report that the 5-year survival rate for people under 65 years of age was around 79%, while the rate was about 50% for those 75 and over.
It can make you feel run down, wheezy, and swollen with fluids. It's a lifelong condition, but it can be treated and managed with the help of your doctor. About 3 million women in the U.S. have it. Some 455,000 more join the ranks each year, and that number is on the rise.
You may not have any symptoms of heart failure, or the symptoms may be mild to severe. Symptoms can be constant or can come and go. The symptoms can include: Congested lungs.
Coronary artery disease and heart attack.
Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of heart failure. The disease results from the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries. The deposits narrow the arteries. This reduces blood flow and can lead to heart attack.
As heart failure progresses, you may experience more pronounced symptoms, including: Belly pain: You may feel bloated or fuller after eating. Breathing disturbance: You may have shortness of breath all the time or with exertion. You might also have a cough when lying down.
Get to your doctor. 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.
Patients with congestive heart failure have a high incidence of sudden cardiac death that is attributed to ventricular arrhythmias.
Can heart failure cause weight loss? People living with heart failure can develop rapid weight loss. This is known as cardiac cachexia, and the outlook for people with the condition is not positive due to an increased risk of mortality.
Increasing age, female gender, diabetes mellitus (DM), lower hemoglobin, and dilated left atrium were strong predictors of incident HF. Predictors of shorter time to incident HF were coexisting DM and hypertension, and the presence of dilated left atrium in patients with left ventricular ejection fraction < 40%.
An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a test that records the electrical activity of the heart. The ECG reflects what's happening in different areas of the heart and helps identify any problems with the rhythm or rate of your heart. The ECG is painless and takes around 5-10 minutes to perform.
Having either high LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol) or low HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol)—or both—is one of the best predictors of your risk of heart disease.