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Prognosis Congestive Heart Failure

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Reduced Risk Of Death From Any Cause With Pet Ownership

Congestive Heart Failure Diagnosis and Treatment

Given that the general population has a 24% lower risk of death due to any cause and heart attack survivors who live alone have a 33% lower risk of death due to heart attack, it is not surprising that owning a dog has a link to cardiovascular disease. Although pet ownership appears to have a protective effect on CVD risk, the mechanism by which it does so is still unclear. Furthermore, it should be noted that dogs with congestive heart failure have a median survival time of 6 to 14 months, but some may live for nearly three years if properly treated.

Diagnosing Heart Failure Before It Shows

If you have no symptoms or signs of heart failure, how can you be diagnosed with heart failure? Some people are at a much higher risk of developing heart failure than others. By diagnosing you with stage A heart failure, your doctor will monitor your heart health closely, and suggest treatments that may ward off heart failure signs for as long as possible. A few examples of people who are at risk of developing heart failure include those who have:

  • A family history of heart failure

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What Happens If You Have Heart Failure

People with heart failure have weak hearts that dont work as well as they should. Over time, the illness causes significant damage to the body.

In the first stages, the heart is less effective. It stretches, grows bigger, and pumps faster to compensate for the lack of strength. The body also changes, with arteries getting smaller and blood being directed away from certain body parts. Many people with heart failure dont know they have a problem in these early stages.

Towards the end stages of CHF, symptoms will worsen even if lifestyle changes are made, and the body will be unable to compensate for the loss of blood flow. As soon as that happens, the person may start to feel tired, have trouble breathing, and have other problems.

People can get help managing their end stages congestive heart failure symptoms and slowing down the progress of their condition with a variety of treatments. Its a long-term condition that cant be cured, as well as heart failure. People will eventually reach the end stages of heart failure.

Even when the person is lying down, they feel a shortness of breath. Their symptoms can change rapidly over a short period of time.

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Treatments For Heart Failure

Treatment for heart failure usually aims to control the symptoms for as long as possible and slow down the progression of the condition.

How youre treated will depend on what is causing your heart failure.

Common treatments include:

  • lifestyle changes including eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and stopping smoking
  • medicine a range of medicines can help many people need to take 2 or 3 different types
  • devices implanted in your chest these can help control your heart rhythm
  • surgery such as a or a heart transplant

Treatment will usually be needed for life.

A cure may be possible when heart failure has a treatable cause. For example, if your heart valves are damaged, replacing or repairing them may cure the condition.

How Heart Failure Is Diagnosed

congestive_heart_failure_differential_diagnosis_map

Symptoms of heart failure can mimic those of other health issues. Its important to bring such concerns to your healthcare providers attention, so they can determine whether heart failure or another condition is the cause.

A heart failure diagnosis is usually made based on your medical history, a physical examination, and heart function tests, primarily electrocardiogram and echocardiogram . Brain natriuretic peptide measurement has gained attention because it can be done using a blood test. It can be used with an EKG and an echo to piece together a diagnosis of heart failure.

Verywell

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Congestive Heart Failure: Prevention Treatment And Research

Congestive heart failure is a serious condition in which the heart doesnt pump blood as efficiently as it should. Despite its name, heart failure doesnt mean that the heart has literally failed or is about to stop working. Rather, it means that the heart muscle has become less able to contract over time or has a mechanical problem that limits its ability to fill with blood. As a result, it cant keep up with the bodys demand, and blood returns to the heart faster than it can be pumped outit becomes congested, or backed up. This pumping problem means that not enough oxygen-rich blood can get to the bodys other organs.

The body tries to compensate in different ways. The heart beats faster to take less time for refilling after it contractsbut over the long run, less blood circulates, and the extra effort can cause heart palpitations. The heart also enlarges a bit to make room for the blood. The lungs fill with fluid, causing shortness of breath. The kidneys, when they dont receive enough blood, begin to retain water and sodium, which can lead to kidney failure. With or without treatment, heart failure is often and typically progressive, meaning it gradually gets worse.

More than 5 million people in the United States have congestive heart failure. Its the most common diagnosis in hospitalized patients over age 65. One in nine deaths has heart failure as a contributing cause.

Mortality Of Heart Failure

As discussed previously, the data available suggest that the prevalence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction increased over time. As its survival remained unchanged, its prevalence can be assumed to be increasing, thereby underscoring the growing importance of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction as a public health problem.

Aref Albakri, Thomas Klingenheben, in, 2020

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Comparison With Other Studies

There is considerable variation in previous heart failure survival estimates depending on the study setting. People with acute heart failure recruited from hospital inpatient populations have comparatively poor outcomes. Among 12440 people with heart failure in the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Long-Term registry, one year mortality was 23.6% for people with acute heart failure and 6.4% for those with chronic heart failure across Europe.34 Despite initiatives in many countries to improve care for people with heart failure, success has been limited. The most recent annual national heart failure audit in England reported one year mortality rates of 29.6% among people admitted to hospital with heart failure. This rate had not improved for the previous six years despite service restructuring to provide patients with care from specialist heart failure teams during admission and immediately after discharge.10

How Is Heart Failure Treated/managed

Early Stages of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)

Treatment of heart failure depends on the underlying cause and this will direct the main treatment to prevent further deterioration. Heart failure can be cured if it has a treatable cause.

If the causes are due to coronary heart disease then the patient may require coronary stents or . If there is a heart valve cause, then the defective valve will need surgery to repair or replace the valve.

All heart failure patients will need:

  • Lifestyle changes including eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and stopping smoking and watching fluid intake and reduce alcohol consumption.
  • Medicine a range of medicines can help many people need to take three to four different types which have evidence to show they strengthen the heart and improve prognosis. This includes beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, ARNI and SGLT2 inhibitors. Other medicines, such as diuretics, may be used to help with the symptoms.

In cases where patients are seen to be experiencing continued deteriorating heart function despite the best and optimal medication, the following may be considered:

  • Cardiac resynchronising therapy In very severe heart failure conditions, a specialised type of pacemaker has shown to benefit and improve symptoms as well as prolonging life by resynchronising the contractility of the two main pumping chambers of the heart.
  • Cardiac transplant If there is no scope for recovery and the condition deteriorates then in suitable patients, a heart transplant may be considered.

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This Article Has A Correction Please See:

  • Clare J Taylor, NIHR academic clinical lecturer1,
  • José M Ordóñez-Mena, medical statistician1,
  • Andrea K Roalfe, senior researcher in medical statistics1,
  • Sarah Lay-Flurrie, senior data scientist1,
  • Nicholas R Jones, Wellcome Trust doctoral research fellow1,
  • Tom Marshall, professor of public health and primary care2,
  • F D Richard Hobbs, professor of primary care1
  • 1Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
  • 2Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  • Correspondence to: C J Taylor clare.taylorphc.ox.ac.uk
    • Accepted 8 January 2019

    Congestive Heart Failure: Symptoms Treatment And Prognosis

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    Congestive heart failure is a condition that may develop when the heart cant pump enough blood through to the body.

    Heart failure does not imply that the heart has ceased beating Rather, it signifies that coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, or infections have weakened or harmed the heart.

    Heart failure can gradually develop and worsen over time, or come about very quickly, depending on the cause.

    Most of those living with CHF control their condition, with a healthy heart patient diet and regular exercise.

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    Stage A Treatment Options

    Treatment options in stage A mainly focus on promoting your overall health and disease prevention. If you meet the stage A criteria, your doctor will recommend lifestyle changes to slow or stop disease progression.

    Heart Failure Doctor Discussion Guide

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    What Is An Ejection Fraction

    Congestive Heart Failure Illustrations, Royalty

    An ejection fraction is a measurement of the blood pumped out of your heart with each beat, expressed in a percentage. It can be measured using an echocardiogram , multigated acquisition scan, nuclear stress test, magnetic resonance imaging , or during a cardiac catheterization. A normal ejection fraction is between 50% and 70%.

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    What Are The Types Of Congestive Heart Failure

    The types of congestive heart failure include-

    Broadly, congestive heart failure can be of two types- the left sided and the right sided. Out of the two, the most common type is the left sided congestive heart failure. It occurs due to the inability of the left ventricle to function properly.

    On the contrary, right sided congestive heart failure occurs when the right ventricular muscles of the heart cannot function properly to pump blood to the body. The left sided congestive heart failure can be further of two types namely the systolic heart failure and the diastolic heart failure.

    Diastolic heart failure occurs when the left ventricle muscles become stiff and unable to pump blood in between the heart beats. Systolic heart failure is characterized by inability of the left ventricle to contract properly in order to pump blood to all parts of the body.

    It may happen so the left sided congestive heart failure may spread to the right in case the condition is left untreated.

    How Long Will I Live With Heart Failure

    The congestive heart failure lifespan depends on many variables, such as the cause of heart failure, its severity, and other comorbidities.The survival rates for those affected in the general population are:

    • 5-years: 51.5% and
    • 10-years: 29.5%.

    There are 6 million people alive in the US that suffer from this disease, and almost 1 million in the UK. The data shown above tells us that only a half of these people will survive the next 5 years.

    A heart transplant, being the ultimate treatment for such a disease, prolongs the estimated survival. 20 years after a transplant, around21% of patients are still alive.

    There’s a special tool for assessing the mortality rate of heart failure patients admitted to the ICU.

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    In All Heart Failure Patients

    The 2016 ESC guidelines recognize the importance of ECG in the diagnosis and prognosis of HF patients. The guidelines recommend ECG to all HF patients at presentation to assess potential etiology, inform appropriate therapy, and predict cardiac events . The guidelines also indicate that normal ECG findings are unlikely in HF patients . In support of these recommendations, current data on some ECG parameters including QRS duration, T wave, ST-segment elevation, and/or depression at presentation strongly support their ability in predicting cardiac events and clinical outcomes in HF patients .

    Other significant ECG parameters on admission that can predict cardiac events in HF patients include QTc duration, changes in ST segment, low voltage, and Q waves. Admission ECG done on 246 consecutive HF patients demonstrate that QTc peak duration is a significant multivariate predictor of a composite endpoint of cardiac events, rehospitalization, or death . The prognostic value of the presence of atrial fibrillation in HF patients has been known for decades in a cohort of patients admitted with acute HF and were followed for 30 days with regard to cardiac events, those patients with an event had a significantly higher incidence of atrial fibrillation on admission ECG as compared to those without .

    Kyung U. Hong, Roberto Bolli, in, 2016

    K. Ono, in, 2017

    How To Use The Congestive Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculator

    An Osmosis Video: Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Explained

    To find a persons survival odds with our heart failure life expectancy calculator, youll need the exact values of:

    • The age of the patient
    • The patients weight/height, or BMI
    • Their creatinine levels creatinine is a product of the muscles metabolism. It is found at increased levels when the kidneys do not work properly
    • Ejection Fraction the amount of blood that is pushed out of the heart during systole, out of the total amount of blood in the heart and
    • Systolic blood pressure the larger value of the blood pressure measurement made during a routine blood pressure check-up, given in mmHg.

    In addition, you need to answer the following questions:

  • Whats your patients sex?
  • Does your patient take angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors , for example, captopril, or angiotensin II receptor blockers ?
  • Does your patient take beta-blockers, for example, propranolol, metoprolol, bisoprolol?
  • Was your patients heart failure diagnosed 18 months ago?
  • Whats your patients NYHA class?
  • Does your patient suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ?
  • Does your patient still smoke? Or have they managed to quit?
  • Does your patient suffer from diabetes?
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    Causes Of Heart Failure

    Heart failure is often the result of a number of problems affecting the heart at the same time.

    Conditions that can lead to heart failure include:

    Sometimes obesity, anaemia, drinking too much alcohol, an overactive thyroid or high pressure in the lungs can also lead to heart failure.

    B: Delivery Of Health Care

    B1: Perceptions regarding care

    B1.a: Appropriateness of care

    The interviewed patients assessment of the quality of medical and nursing care varied depending on whether they thought the treatment was appropriate, necessary and met their needs. If decisions about medical treatment, prescriptions and home visits made by the professionals do not meet a patients expectations, they may be perceived as inadequate or wrong. Treatment of pain was particularly highlighted: The fact that patients often perceive pain as an expression of complete suffering not attributable to any particular cause leads to a type of indifference that makes any medical help inconceivable. The following quotation clearly illustrates this perception of ubiquitous suffering, which the patient repeatedly mentioned in every interview.

    Patient HD12, T2 : I only want to feel better. But it seems its not to be, nothing good. Being ill, theres nothing wanted, nothing needed, its always the same. I dont need anything, I can be quite alone. Pain everywhere

    Patient HD06, T1 : So you know, if a patient is really ill, yes, its good when you have someone who looks after you. I mean, I do not want too much care, it would be too much responsibility for me, you know. But if youre not feeling well, its good to have someone.

    B1.b: Continuity of care

    B2: Interpersonal relationships

    B2.a: Interaction in the processes of care

    B2.b: Specific aspects in physician-patient interaction

    B3: Meaning of family

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    Heart Failure Expectations Unrealistic

    In the study, researchers surveyed 122 people with moderate to advanced congestive heart failure about their perception of their life expectancy.

    They found the heart failure patients tended to overestimate their life expectancy by about three years. The average patient survival estimate was 13 years compared with a validated medical model estimate of 10 years.

    Overall, 63% of people with heart failure overestimated their remaining life expectancy by an average of 40% compared with medical model predictions. Those who were younger and with more advanced disease were most likely to overestimate how long they had left to live.

    During the three-year follow-up period, 29% of the people involved in the survey died. Researchers found no relationship between longer life expectancy perceptions and survival.

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    How To Live Longer With Heart Failure

    Pin by Pam Logalbo on Nursing Pearls

    Everything you need to know about the various stages of heart failure to live longer with the condition.

    A congestive heart failure diagnosis doesnt mean your heart has stopped working, it means that your heart is unable to pump enough blood throughout your body.

    Heart failure is a scary term, says , a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The condition can worsen if the proper steps arent taken to slow or halt the problem, but it does not mean your life is over.

    Congestive heart failure, more simply known as heart failure, occurs when theres a reduction in blood flow throughout the body because blood flow from the heart slows down. That means blood returning to the heart through the veins backs up, causing congestion in the bodys tissues. That congestion may cause swelling in the ankles, legs, or stomach, as well as fluid in the lungs that causes trouble breathing.

    Life expectancy with congestive heart failure varies depending on the severity of the condition, genetics, age, and other factors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , around one-half of all people diagnosed with congestive heart failure will survive beyond five years. Only around 10 percent of people diagnosed with the condition survive at least 10 years, according to a study published in August 2013 in the journal Circulation Research.

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