Four Stages Of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)

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Congestive Heart Failure or CHF is a disease that makes it hard for the body to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body's organs. The heart muscle becomes damaged from other conditions such as myocardial ischemia, hypertension and arrhythmia. When this happens the heart is very weak, but it works too hard to efficiently pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body resulting in life-threatening congestion.

Congestive heart failure can affect all ages, from children to the elderly. Almost five million Americans currently live with CHF and there are 550,000 new cases each year. Almost 1.4 million patients with CHF are under the age of 60. And According to the Heart Failure Society of America "African-Americans are 1.5 times more likely to
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These four stages of heart failure help guide a treatment plan. The four stages of HF are A, B, C and D. In stage A of heart failure there are risk factors but no symptoms. this means a family history of hypertension, diabetes and heart problems or diets high in fat, abuse of alcohol or drugs and smoking could potentially lead to HF. In stage B of HF, heart disease is present, however, there are no symptoms, just changes to the heart. In stage C, heart failure is present and there are symptoms. The symptoms of stage C heart failure are fatigue and shortness of breath. During stage D, there are obvious signs of advanced heart disease. Stage D HF requires serious medical …show more content…
Some BB help improves survival rates in patients because they improve the beta receptor pathway function. According to Boyle (2014), "A beta blocker should be initiated before hospital discharge or on an outpatient basis at a low dose and titrated slowly to target levels or maximally tolerated doses". Most beta blockers are usually given to patients that are on ACE inhibitors. Drugs taken in combination with ACE inhibitors and beta blockers are Diuretics. diuretics are good for patients with symptomatic congestion. However, diuretics have adverse reactions such as hypokalemia and an elevation of neurohormone

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