Signs of heart failure

Heart failure is a complex of manifestations and clinical signs that arise due to a change in one of the functions of the heart, namely pumping. The signs of this pathology are very different, and they directly depend on the form of the disease.

The main types of heart failure are chronic and acute forms. These forms differ in the rate of progression and the nature of the course of the disease.

The development of acute failure occurs in the shortest possible time. At some points this process takes several hours, and sometimes several minutes. Clear signs of this pathology are cardiac asthma and pulmonary edema. All these phenomena can lead to the death of the patient, so in this situation, the patient needs immediate medical attention.

Cardiac asthma and pulmonary edema accompanied by a strong attack of dyspnea, and besides blue skin. Often the patient is dizzy and wet rales in the lungs are observed, fainting is not uncommon. All these symptoms may appear together with a heart muscle heart attack or with an attack of hypertensive disease, the so-called hypertensive crisis. If this happens, then it means an acute decompensation of the functioning of the heart. Sometimes an acute form of pathology occurs against the background of complications of the chronic form of the disease.

Chronic type of heart failure is characterized by a rather slow development of symptoms, the patient's health condition remains stable. Symptoms tend to occur in a person over time, which indicates a slow disruption of the heart muscle. Only in exceptional cases this form of pathology occurs immediately after an attack of cardiac insufficiency of acute form.

One of the first signs of heart failure is shortness of breath. First, such a state occurs only after excessive physical exertion. Further, shortness of breath can occur even without binding to this, appearing even in a supine position.

This disease is characterized by stagnation of blood in the lungs, which leads to the appearance of other symptoms, often not the most pleasant. One of these symptoms is a dry cough. In medical practice, this condition is often called a heart cough. Practically all people suffering from chronic heart failure have a dry cough. Cough causes swelling of the lung tissue. As a rule, there is a cough during the period of physical exertion, because at that very moment the heart begins to work in a strengthened mode. Cough can also occur in the prone position.

Treatment of a chronic form of the disease involves the use of antihypertensive medications, among which there are ACE inhibitors( eg, Captopril).Due to the use of this type of medication, a side effect such as dry cough may also appear. Therefore, the patient should monitor his cough, fix the moments when a cough appears and try to find out his reasons. If cough occurs due to taking medications, then the drug is better replaced with another.

If we talk about swelling, then they usually occur on the lower limbs. At the first stages they appear in the area of ​​the ankles. In the evening, edema increases, and in the morning practically disappear. If you do not carry out therapy, then swelling can go to the shin or thigh, as well as to other parts of the body. In addition to puffiness in patients, changes are recorded on the skin. These changes are trophic. Skin pigmentation, hair loss, deformation of nails and so on can begin.

Another symptom of the chronic form of this pathology is muscle weakness. There is weakness due to reduced blood supply to the muscles. In such situations, patients complain of excessive fatigue, as well as a strong muscle weakness, which occurs during periods of exercise.

Extremely rare is another sign of heart failure of chronic form - pain syndrome in the right hypochondrium. There is such a condition as a result of stagnation of blood in a large circle of blood circulation, or rather in the liver.