Heart failure is a cardiovascular disorder. Heart failure occurs when the heart is incapable of pumping blood around the body efficiently, therefore is unable to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen. There are differing types of heart failure, chronic and acute heart failure being the most common (4). This essay will give a brief background on heart failure, the casual agents of heart failure as well as risk factors, testing and appropriate treatment strategies. Heart failure is a serious disease affecting more than 23 million people worldwide these numbers are still on the rise leading to increased hospitalization and health care costs. Untreated it can be fatal; but early detection and treatment can extend a patient’s life expectancy.
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Coronary artery disease is said to be the most common cause of heart failure, as time goes on your body’s arteries become narrow from build-up of fatty deposits (atherosclerosis), therefore blood flow is reduced. Eisen et al state that a myocardial infarction is one major cause of heart failure in patients with coronary artery disease (10). When you have a high blood pressure this is called hypertension, a high blood pressure means that the heart is working harder to circulate the blood, overtime the heart muscles becomes stiff or too weak to efficiently pump the blood. The primary aetiology of heart disease is difficult to determine especially when a patient has many different diseases that could potentially trigger heart failure. Some other causes of heart failure are diabetes mellitus and atrial fibrillation (8). Obesity is one cause of heart failure that can be prevented, “more than 40% of people with heart failure have a body mass index consistent with obesity” this number can be reduced if people are educated about the risk factors obesity can cause. (5). Another cause of heart failure can be damage to heart muscles, things that would damage it include drug and alcohol abuse and infections. An abnormal heart rhythm can also be a cause of heart failure, this can mean that they beat to …show more content…
Some of the tests that they can perform are taking blood tests, this looks at how well your kidney and thyroid function, it also can evaluate the stage of heart failure and to see if there has been any organ damage from the disease. A chest x-ray allows you to see if there were any physical problems with the heart, such as enlargement, or fluid build-up. An electrocardiogram shows your hearts activity and if there is any abnormal beat or rhythm, this test also can determine the difference between systolic and diastolic heart failure. The brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) test measures the BNP in the blood. When the heart works normally there should only be a very small amount found in the blood, however when heart failure is present there will be a larger amount present, this test is one that determines whether you have heart failure or not. One more test it a myocardial biopsy, this is when a small cord is inserted into a vein either in the neck or groin, and little pieces of heart muscle are taken, this test determines any sort of disease in the heart that could have caused heart failure.
Coronary artery disease is said to be the most common cause of heart failure, as time goes on your body’s arteries become narrow from build-up of fatty deposits (atherosclerosis), therefore blood flow is reduced. Eisen et al state that a myocardial infarction is one major cause of heart failure in patients with coronary artery disease (10). When you have a high blood pressure this is called hypertension, a high blood pressure means that the heart is working harder to circulate the blood, overtime the heart muscles becomes stiff or too weak to efficiently pump the blood. The primary aetiology of heart disease is difficult to determine especially when a patient has many different diseases that could potentially trigger heart failure. Some other causes of heart failure are diabetes mellitus and atrial fibrillation (8). Obesity is one cause of heart failure that can be prevented, “more than 40% of people with heart failure have a body mass index consistent with obesity” this number can be reduced if people are educated about the risk factors obesity can cause. (5). Another cause of heart failure can be damage to heart muscles, things that would damage it include drug and alcohol abuse and infections. An abnormal heart rhythm can also be a cause of heart failure, this can mean that they beat to …show more content…
Some of the tests that they can perform are taking blood tests, this looks at how well your kidney and thyroid function, it also can evaluate the stage of heart failure and to see if there has been any organ damage from the disease. A chest x-ray allows you to see if there were any physical problems with the heart, such as enlargement, or fluid build-up. An electrocardiogram shows your hearts activity and if there is any abnormal beat or rhythm, this test also can determine the difference between systolic and diastolic heart failure. The brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) test measures the BNP in the blood. When the heart works normally there should only be a very small amount found in the blood, however when heart failure is present there will be a larger amount present, this test is one that determines whether you have heart failure or not. One more test it a myocardial biopsy, this is when a small cord is inserted into a vein either in the neck or groin, and little pieces of heart muscle are taken, this test determines any sort of disease in the heart that could have caused heart failure.