General Medical Advices

Posts Tagged ‘respiratory disorders’

Heart failure: what is it?

Heart failure is a serious health problem that occurs when the heart can no longer pump enough blood to meet the oxygen requirements of the body. Gradually, people who are living out of breath and tire more easily.

It usually occurs in individuals whose health is weakened for several years by cardiac or respiratory disorders, or hypertension.

Heart failure is more frequent than before. This is one consequence of successful treatment against heart disease. There is however no reliable statistics on its prevalence. This is a major cause of mortality among the elderly. Indeed, the survival rate five years after diagnosis is about 50% 1.
Causes

Heart failure occurs when the heart has much more force to expel blood into the arteries, or that it fills less blood because it has stiffened. Each contraction of the heart is therefore less effective. The blood takes longer to pass through the arteries and tends to stagnate in the veins. Because of this congestion of blood in the veins it is called heart failure “congestive”.

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