Congestive Heart Failure Introduction & Overview

Conditions & Diseases: Cardiovascular System

Congestive Heart Failure

Introduction/Overview

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is the inability of the heart to pump oxygenated blood to different muscles, tissues and organs due to weakening of heart’s muscles leading to retention of oxygenated blood in the lower chamber of the heart (left ventricle) and lungs. This weakened pumping action of the heart causes accumulation of body fluid (water) in the lungs, kidneys, arms, legs ankles and feet (1). Congestive heart failure is mainly due to:

Systolic Dysfunction – When heart cannot pump oxygenated blood to suffice the body’s needs
Diastolic Dysfunction – When heart is unable to accept all the blood being sent to it (2)

Normally, the heart pumps more than 50% of the blood that fills in it during every heart beat, but in case of patients suffering from heart failure less than 40% blood is pumped out during each heart beat and a large portion of the blood remains in the heart - leaving less room for blood coming from the lungs during next heart beat. This results in backing up of blood into body (3).

Approximately 550,000 new cases are diagnosed every year. It is the most common hospital discharge diagnosis with more than one million hospital stays annually. A person 40 years or more has a 1 in 5 chance of developing heart failure. Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) affects 1% of the people aged 50 years, 5% people aged 75 years or older and 25% people aged 85 years or older irrespective of sex (4) & (5).

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com