What is congestive heart failure (CHF)?
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic condition in which your heart’s ability to pump blood has weakened, leaving it unable to circulate enough blood to meet the body’s needs. When the blood or fluid backs up, causing congestion in the lungs or elsewhere, it’s called congestive heart failure. Heart failure can also come from the heart becoming too inflexible to fill properly.
Heart failure is a set of symptoms caused by other problems that leave the heart weakened. Generally, these are problems such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure or irregular heart rhythms that have occurred over a long period of time.
What are the causes of CHF?
The major cause of CHF is heart attacks (myocardial infarctions). Other conditions that may lead to the development of CHF include high blood pressure (hypertension), valve disease and irregular heart rhythms, which usually develop over many years.
Heart failure may also be caused by enlargement of the heart, or cardiomyopathy , a general term meaning “heart muscle disease” or damage to the heart from causes other than artery or blood flow problems. A family history of cardiomyopathy is a risk factor. Viral infections can cause cardiomyopathy, as well as drugs and alcohol abuse.
CHF is serious and can be life-threatening. It affects an estimated 5 million Americans, and is the most common cause for hospital admissions for people over age 65.
What are the symptoms of CHF?
- Shortness of breath
- Easily tired
- Fluid in lungs, or feet and ankles
- Chest pain
- Dry, hacking cough
- Sudden weight gain
- Decreased urination
The Heart Failure Society of America offers this suggestion for remembering common CHF symptoms: Think FACES. This stands for:
F – Fatigue
A – Activities limited
C – Chest congestion
E – Edema or ankle swelling
S – Shortness of breath
What are the risk factors for CHF?
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Coronary artery disease
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Alcohol abuse
- Inactivity
- Obesity
- Family history of enlarged heart
How is CHF diagnosed?
Your physician can diagnose heart failure during a routine physical examination. Checking for any risk factors – such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol – may suggest a need for further testing. Your doctor may recommend seeing a cardiologist for tests such as:
- Chest x-ray
- Echocardiogram
- Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG)
- Coronary catheterization (angiogram)
- Nuclear scan
- Blood tests
What treatment is available?
Treatments focus on reversing or slowing the progression of the disease. Research is ongoing for new means of treatment. Currently, the best approach is to follow through on three basic treatment strategies:
- Medications
- Lifestyle changes
- Surgery or non-surgical, invasive procedures
Most importantly: maintaining one of these strategies alone isn’t enough. To ease your heart’s workload, you must watch your diet, exercise aerobically on a regular basis, report any worrisome signs to your physician, and take medications faithfully.
Medications
A number of medications are available to help with heart failure. Some help improve circulation by strengthening the heart muscle’s pumping action or expanding the blood vessels. Others help reduce the amount of water and sodium in the body, which in turn reduces the heart’s workload.
It’s important for patients to keep track of prescribed medications and follow instructions on taking them.
Lifestyle changes
Lifestyle changes can make a tremendous difference in preventing or controlling risk factors like those listed above. Remember: this is a chronic condition that needs daily management.
Taking these steps can help:
- Exercising regularly
- Reducing salt intake
- Losing weight
- Eating a heart-healthy diet
- Reporting signs and symptoms to your physician
- Taking any medications faithfully
- Avoid alcohol or limit it to one drink two or three times a week
- Quit smoking
- Avoid or limit caffeine
- Reduce stress
Mercy offers cardiac rehabilitation classes at the Mercy Fitness Center. Our dietitians and therapists are also available to help determine the appropriate exercise plan and diet for you. We also offer four community education programs that can help you learn to live with heart failure.
Surgical Procedures
In some cases, coronary artery bypass surgery (or a nonsurgical procedure known as an angioplasty) eases heart failure symptoms by increasing blood flow to the heart. Ongoing research is underway to improve patients’ outcomes through other procedures.
Other possible non-surgical, invasive procedures include:
- Biventricular pacemaker – restores the electrical properties of the damaged heart, increasing its efficiency. This procedure is offered at Mercy.
- Internal cardiac defibrillator – senses when the heart is fibrillating (beating abnormally) and delivers an electrical jolt to correct it. This procedure is offered at Mercy.
- Left ventricular assist device – a pump implanted in the abdomen to enable the heart to aid the circulation of blood.
For more information from the Heart Failure Society of America, click here www.abouthf.org
