Heart Failure Research Paper

Left-sided heart failure is the most common type of heart failure, and it is a result of left-ventricular dysfunction. This disease poses a significant threat to patients because the primary function of the left side of the heart is to provide sufficient oxygenated blood to satisfy the metabolic demands of the body’s cells. Understanding the main function of this portion of the heart will help with the understanding of other complications associated with this diseased. Left-sided heart failure is usually the result of the loss of heart muscle function, specifically in the left ventricle secondary to coronary artery disease, prolonged hypertension, or myocardial infection (Lewis et al. 2014, 766). The

This occurs because when the right heart fails as a forward pump, cardiac output falls, resulting in backward dumping and leading to what is commonly known as "backward failure." If the right ventricle cannot pump effectively, the volume of blood in the veins increases, leading to congestion, similar to that of left-sided failure. Venous congestion in the form of edema is often easy to see in areas of the body lower than that of the heart. The venous congestion is also the cause of swollen ankles that many patients with right-sided heart failure tend to display.

Risk factors play a role to cause congestive heart failure, but if having more than one of the risk factors, it increases one's risk. According to Daniel lee Kulick and Benjamin Wedro, Congestive heart failure is often a consequence of atherosclerotic heart disease and therefore the risk factors are the same. Poorly controlled high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, and family history are all contributors to being a risk factor of congestive heart failure. Heart valve disease becomes a risk factor of the patient throughout the years. Other causes of heart failure have their own set of risk factors and preferences and it becomes problem to those diseases.

It because the heart has weak or damaged ventricular walls that are not able to push enough blood into the body (Congestive Heart Failure Symptoms). Or perhaps it is because the ventricular walls are stiff therefore, the heart does not fill with enough blood. If a person has a left sided heart failure the left ventricle doesn’t deliver enough oxygenated blood full of rich nutrients to the body which causes the person to feel tired and out of breath. The left ventricle also increases the blood pressure in the blood vessels between the lungs and the left ventricle. This increases pressure and forces fluid out of your blood and into your lung tissues, which makes it difficult to breathe. If someone has right-sided heart failure he is unable to contract with enough force to send the blood to the lungs in consequence blood builds up in the veins, throughout the tissues in the body which is called edema. Over time the heart failure on either side of the heart results in weakened and enlarged ventricles resulting in less blood pumping to the body. To make up for the decreased amount of blood the nervous system sends out stress hormones that increase the speed and force of the heartbeat. Unfortunately, the continued release of these hormones makes the heart failure worse because they damage the muscle cells in the ventricles (Moore). The common cause of heart failure is

In right sided heart failure, fluid builds up in the veins and tissues, causing swelling of the lower extremities and the abdomen. When body tissues fail to get the oxygen and the nutrients they require, they begin to lose their efficiency, causing increased dizziness and fatigue.

There are two types of heart failure: systolic heart failure and diastolic heart failure. In systolic heart failure, left ventricle have difficulty contracting and ejecting blood into the circulation,

Left ventricle failure (LVF) is developed by patients with CHF in which the heart is unable to pump blood effectively and so there is a decreased cardiac output. Out of the four chambers that make up the heart the left ventricle is the strongest and thickest one, as it is the main pumping chamber that supplies the

The heart’s function is to move oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium, then on to the left ventricle, pumps it to the rest of the body. The left ventricle supplies most of the heart 's pumping power; therefore, the left ventricle is larger than the other chambers and essential for normal function. In left-sided or left ventricular (LV) heart failure, the left side of the heart must work harder to pump the same amount of blood (American Heart Association -AHA, 2016).

Left sided heart failure occurs as a result of ineffective left ventricular contraction. As the capability of the left ventricle fails, cardiac output decreases. Blood is not successfully pumped out and backs up into the left atrium and the into the lungs, causing pulmonary congestion, dyspnea, and activity

There are a number of factors that lead to the etiology of a right-sided heart failure, including left-sided heart failure and chronic lung disorder. “High pulmonary pressure, or weak, or poorly contractile cardiac muscles, or both, can be responsible for decreased right ventricular emptying” (Rockwell, 1999). The left and right ventricles work together routinely in that, when the left ventricle fails to work properly; it puts the pressure on the right ventricles, weakening the right ventricle. Pulmonary hypertension is when the blood pressure in the lungs is too high, reducing the oxygen to the tissues (hypoxia), and causing the walls of the blood vessels to become inflamed and narrowed. While pulmonary hypertension continues, the right ventricle tries to compensate by expanding and thickening it walls, increasing the blood volume in the lungs and overtime weakening the right ventricle from the work overload, resulting in right-side heart failure.

There are two types of heart failure: systolic and diastolic. “Systolic heart failure is the inability of the heart to squeeze enough blood from the ventricles (heart chambers) to supply the body's needs. Diastolic heart failure results from the inability of the heart muscle to relax in between heartbeats, causing a backup of blood in the heart's chambers and in the blood vessels” (The Journal of the American

Heart failure describes the heart’s inability to function properly, meaning the heart is unable to pump efficiently throughout the body. Thus causing the heart to work extra hard in order to compensate the body’s needs, but this ultimately leads to failure. And due to Mrs. Harris’s hypertension and alcohol consumption, she is now displaying signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure, as both are major risk factors. Heart failure can be seen in the left side, which is also known as congestive heart failure, and the right side of heart. The left side is typically the first side to fail, as the left ventricle is the heart’s largest chamber and the most powerful.

Cardiac failure in correlation with essential hypertension is the end product of several harmful aftereffects of dietary salt.46 Primarily there is systolic dysfunction due to the salt induced hypertension.47 Some older patients may develop diastolic dysfunction due to impaired ventricular filling, this usually precedes systolic dysfunction and is due to the collagen deposition and fibrosis of the ventricle which are closely linked with salt intake. Also, increase in the size of the muscle mass due to high salt intake, due to the hypertrophy and deposition of collagen and fibrous tissue, thickening of the coronary arteries as a result of high intake of dietary salt, which can be detected as an inappropriate coronary blood flow.48,49

“Cor pulmonale is defined as an alteration in the structure and function of the right ventricle caused by a primary disorder of the respiratory system” (Sovari, 2014). Right-sided heart failure usually occurs when pulmonary arterial pressure equals systemic blood pressure; pulmonary hypertension that contributes to the enlargement (hypertrophy, dilation, or both) of the right ventricle (McCance, 2010).

Two-dimensional echocardiography using a subcostal/ apical 4-chamber view have been used to obtain various variables (never ever use the word parameters) in the assessment of right ventricle morphology in patients with pulmonary hypertension. In two studies the right ventricular end diastolic dimension alone and