Essay on Left-Sided Heart Failure

The right side of the heart brings in the circulated blood from the body and sends it to the lungs for oxygen circulation. When the left side of the heart weakens, the right side of the heart has to work harder to compensate. Again, as the heart muscle loses strength, blood and fluid become backed up in the body. The person may experience swelling and trouble catching breath. The symptoms of right sided heart failure are peripheral edema, ascites, hepatomegaly, increased jugular venous pressure, presence of a parasternal heave indicating the compensatory increase in contraction strength, congestion of the gastrointestinal tract resulting in weight loss, impaired liver

Contractility is the pumping of the heart muscle. It is measured as the ejection fraction. Contractility directly influences stroke volume. Increased contractility will increase stroke volume with any amount of preload. Diseases that disrupt myocyte activity reduce contractility. Myocardial infarction is the most common. Others include, but are not limited to, cardiomyopathies, degenerative valve disease, and myocarditis (Francis & Tang, 2003). Secondary causes of decreased contractility, such as myocardial ischemia and increased myocardial workload, contribute to neurohumoral , immune, and inflammatory changes and can cause ventricular remodeling. Ventricular remodeling occurs when the size, shape, and function of the affected chamber is distorted. Ventricular remodeling causes hypertrophy and dilation of the heart muscle and causes progressive myocyte contractile dysfunction over a period of time. When contractility is decreased, stroke

In cardiomyopathy the heart muscle becomes enlarged, thick or rigid, and in rare cases the muscle tissue can be replaced with scar tissue. As this disease worsens, the heart becomes weaker and unable to pump blood normally through the body and maintain a normal electrical rhythm. This can lead to heart failure or irregular heartbeats. The weakening of the heart also can lead to other problems such as heart valve problems. Cardiomyopathy can be acquired or inherited. It can affect people of all ages. There are various types of cardiomyopathy includes, hypertrophic, dilated, restrictive cardiomyopathy, Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia and unclassified cardiomyopathy. Some people with cardiomyopathy will never have any signs and symptoms. But in some people the signs and symptoms will develop in the early stages of the disease. As cardiomyopathy worsens and the heart weakens, signs and symptoms of heart failure usually occur. The signs and symptoms of cardiomyopathy includes, shortness of breath or trouble breathing, especially with physical exertion, fatigue, swelling in the ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, and veins in the neck. Other signs and symptoms may include dizziness, light-headedness, fainting during physical activity, irregular heartbeats, chest pain, especially after physical exertion or heavy meals, and heart murmurs. The treatment of cardiomyopathy include lifestyle changes, medicines, surgery, implanted devices to correct arrhythmias (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,

The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation defines heart failure (HF) as “a common condition that develops after the heart becomes damaged or weakened by diseases of the heart including heart attacks and other medical conditions. (Heart Failure, 2013)” HF is a chronic medical condition causing the body’s heart to weaken and become unable to pump and supply enough blood and nutrients to the meet the body’s needs. There are four different types of HF: left-side, right-side, systolic and diastolic heart failure (Heart Failure, 2015). Left-side heart failure causes shortness of breath due to fluid backing up in the lungs. Right-side heart failure causes fluid retention in abdomen, legs and feet causing swelling. Systolic heart failure is when the left ventricle can’t contract fast enough, indicating a pumping issue and diastolic heart failure is when the left ventricle can’t relax enough to fill properly, indicating a filling problem (Heart Failure, 2015). These abnormalities in heart function can result a homeostatic imbalance in the kidneys responding by causing the body to retain fluid and salt. The term congestive heart failure (CHF) is used when the heart failure has worsened causing a backup of fluid and congesting extremities and other organs (Heart Failure, 2015). Often, you can control heart failure by taking medicine, changing your lifestyle, and treating the condition that caused it but there is no cure at this time.

Left-sided heart failure occurs when there is damage to the left ventricle. The damage may be due to, for example: high blood pressure, drug abuse, heart attack,

Systolic heart failure results from the inability of the cardiac muscle to contract effectively from inadequate cardiac output. As the cardiac output drops, compensatory mechanisms to try to restore its function through takes place by ventricular remodeling. During this remodeling phase, the heart begins to develop changes in its size and becomes hypertrophic that results in a decreased ability of the heart to contract, decreased available oxygen, and available ATP. Secondly, this hypertrophic states increases preload that results

To understand the signs and symptoms of left-sided versus right-sided heart failure, remember that left-sided signs and symptoms are found in the lungs. Left begins with L, as does lung. Any signs and symptoms not related to the lungs are caused by right-sided failure (Williams and Hopper). Some signs and symptoms of heart failure are shortness of breath (dyspnea), fatigue, chronic cough or wheezing, rapid or irregular heartbeat, lack of appetite or nausea, mental confusion or impaired thinking, fluid buildup and swelling, and rapid weight gain, and the need to urinate more at night. In order to determine heart failure the physician will do a diagnostic test which includes a chest x-ray, echocardiogram, ejection fraction (EF), and electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG).

Our heart is a single organ, it acts as a double pump. Without our heart we wouldn’t be living, we need our heart every day, every hour, every minute and every second. The heart pump blood through out our body. The heart has four chambered muscular pumps. The heart weighs approximately 9 ounces. And, has consists of three linings layers. The side of the heart that is affected by congestive heart failure would be both, because the left side (left ventricular) supplies most of the heart pumping power so its-larger than other chambers. And the right side (right ventricular) the heart failure usually loose pumping power, blood backs up in the body’s veins. The fluid accumulate somewhere would go to deliver oxygen rich blood to the body. Diseases

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.

Firstly, the hemodynamics model centers around the heart as a pumping organ, utilizing changes in heart rate and stroke volume or both, as explained by Frank and Starling, to respond and adapt to changes in pressure or volume exerted on it, with pathological ventricular remodeling as the compensatory outcome of long-term increases in preload and excessive pressure (Johnson, 2014). Heart rate is up- and down-regulated by the sympathetic, respectively parasympathetic nervous system, and stroke volume is controlled by preload, the blood volume in the ventricles right before systole, by afterload, the ejection force determined from systemic vascular resistance and ventricular wall tension, and by the contractile ability of the heart muscle (Porth, 2015). The contractility of the actin and myosin filaments is dependent on adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as energy source and on intracellular calcium release, and the diffusion of extracellular calcium ions across L-type calcium channels mediated through beta-adrenergic receptors to signal the chemical reaction leading to muscle shortening, as well as the removal of calcium through cell-membrane pumps to avoid signal overload (Porth, 2015). Pressure and volume overload will lead to ventricular hypertrophy, myocardial stiffness, restricted stroke volume, ventricular dilation and further

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, which causes reduced left ventricular fraction. On the other hand, diastolic heart failure has a slow and delayed relaxation and chamber rigidity increase, which then causes inadequate filling of blood and slows down the ability to eject blood efficiently. Calcium is not

Isolated diastolic heart failure is defined as pulmonary congestion despite a normal stroke volume and cardiac output. Two areas of pathophysiologic changes in the ventricle have been identified in diastolic dysfunction: decreased compliance of the left ventricle and abnormal diastolic relaxation

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.

In the earlier stages of heart failure, the body will try to compensate by stretching the ventricular muscle to its limit so that it can contract stronger and pump more blood. Consequently, the heart muscle will thicken because of the demand to pump harder. In this condition, the volume accommodated by the ventricle decreases and the contractility of the muscle lessens. In an

“congestive heart failure is a chronic progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen”(American Heart Association, 2015). When the heart fails, it pumps the blood faster to increase the output and muscle of heart become more dense and enlarged. Once the chambers are enlarged, it stretches more and contract strongly which helps to pump more blood. Due to the enlargement of the heart, a body starts to retain fluid, which makes a lung congested and heart starts to beat irregularly (American Heart Association, 2015). The main causes of CHF are coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, previous heart attack, cardiomyopathy, and others, which weakens and stiffens the heart muscles. In cardiomyopathy, heart muscles become thick, rigid and enlarged, which is caused by genetic factors, medications, infections, toxicity and others.