Pathophysiology : Heart Failure Is A Chronic And Progressive Disease Process

Heart failure may convey that the heart isn’t working anymore, but what it really means is that the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be (REF). 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 (REF). At first, the heart tries to make up for this by enlarging, developing more muscle mass, and pumping faster. As this happens, the blood vessels narrow to keep blood pressure up and the body diverts blood away from less important tissues and organs to maintain flow to the heart and brain (REF). Eventually, the body and heart cannot keep up and the patient begins to feel fatigue, breathing problems, weight gain with swelling in the feet, legs, ankles or stomach, and other symptoms that eventually leads to a hospital visit. The body’s coping mechanisms give us better understanding on why many are unaware of their condition until years after the heart declines (REF).

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. Basically, the heart can 't keep up with its workload. American Heart Association Statistics (2016) reveals that heart failure accounts for 36% of cardiovascular disease deaths. Projections report a 46% increase in the prevalence of Heart Failure (HF) by 2030 by affecting over 8 million people above 18 years with the disease. Healthy People 2020 goals are focused on attaining high quality longer lives free of preventable diseases, promotion of quality of life, healthy development and healthy behaviors across all stages of life (Healthy People 2020, 2015).

Systolic heart failure is characterized by enlarged ventricles that are unable to fully contract to pump enough blood into circulation to adequately perfuse tissues. The enlargement in ventricles is due to an increased end-systolic volume. If the heart is not able to sufficiently pump the expected volume of blood with each contraction, which in a normal healthy heart is 50-60%, there will be a residual volume left in the heart after every pump (Heart Healthy Women, 2012). With the next period of filling, the heart will receive the same amount of blood volume from the atria combined with that residual volume from the previous contraction. This causes the ventricles to have to dilate to accommodate this increase in volume. The dilation causes the walls of the ventricles to stretch and become thin and weak. Also the myocardium, the muscle layer of the heart, will stretch and not be able to adequately make a full and forceful enough contraction to push blood from the ventricles (Lehne, 2010).

Heart Failure is a progressive heart disease when the muscle of the heart is weakened so that it cannot pump blood as it should; the blood backs up into the blood vessels around the lungs and the other parts of the body (NHS Choice, 2015). In heart failure, the heart is not able to maintain a normal range cardiac output to meet the metabolic needs of the body (Kemp and Conte, 2012). Heart failure is a major worldwide public health problem, it is the end stage of heart disease and it could lead to high mortality. At present, heart failure is usually associated with old age, given the dramatic increase in the population of older people (ACCF/AHA, 2013). In the USA, there are about 5.7 million adults who have heart failure, about half of the people die within 5 years of diagnosis, and it costs the nation an estimated $30.7 billion each year (ACCF/AHA, 2013).

Heart failure affects nearly 6 million Americans. It is the leading cause of hospitalization in people older than 65. Roughly 550,000 people are diagnosed with heart failure each year (Emory Healthcare, 2014). Heart failure is a pathologic state where the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the demand of the body’s metabolic needs or when the ventricle’s ability to fill is impaired. It is not a disease, but rather a complex clinical syndrome. The symptoms of heart failure come from pulmonary vascular congestion and inadequate perfusion of the systemic circulation. Individuals experience orthopnea,

Congestive Heart Failure is when the heart's pumping power is weaker than normal. It does not mean the heart has stopped working. The blood moves through the heart and body at a slower rate, and pressure in the heart increases. This means; the heart cannot pump enough oxygen and nutrients to meet the body's needs. The chambers of the heart respond by stretching to hold more blood to pump through the body or by becoming more stiff and thickened. This only keeps the blood moving for a short while. The heart muscle walls weaken and are unable to pump as strongly. This makes the kidneys respond by causing the body to retain fluid and sodium. When the body builds up with fluids, it becomes congested. Many conditions can cause heart

Heart failure, HF, is a result of one’s heart inefficiently pumping blood out to the body (Lewis, Dirksen, Heitkemper and Bucher, 2014, p.766). A healthy heart will pump blood out of the left and right ventricles rhythmically and simultaneously, creating an even flow of blood from the heart to the pulmonary arteries and the aorta (Lewis et al., 2014, p.769). Someone with heart failure has a ventricular dysfunction in either one or both ventricles; the ventricles are not filling or contracting properly. The failure of one ventricle to properly function leads to an overcompensation of the opposite ventricle as well as a disruption in normal blood flow that leads

Heart failure is more commonly diagnosed in the elderly population. There are ways to help manage heart failure like lifestyle modifications and use of pharmacology, and assessment for surgical intervention. Treatment of heart failure requires intensive medical, dietary, behavioral, and lifestyle modification to achieve improved quality of life, fewer hospitalizations, and decreased mortality (Singh, H., McGregor, Nigro, Higginson, and Larsen, 2014).

Pulmonary: Respirations unlabored. Symmetrical chest expansion. Clear to auscultation bilaterally. No rales, rhonchi, wheezing or diminished breath sounds noted.

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle becomes too weak to maintain an adequate cardiac output to meet the body’s

Heart failure is a serious medical condition that is brought by the failure of the heart to pump sufficient blood throughout the body at the right pressure. Generally, this condition is a progressive and chronic disease in which the heart muscle is incapable to pump adequate blood for all blood and oxygen needs of the body. Since the heart cannot keep up with its workload under this condition, it attempts to make up for the failure through enlarging, developing more muscle mass, and pumping faster. Enlarging involves stretching the heart chamber more in order to pump more blood while developing more muscle mass occurs because of increase in size of the contracting cells and pumping faster helps to enhance the heart’s output (“About Heart Failure”, n.d.). As a major health problem, potential solutions for heart failure is a nursing focused plan that incorporates identifying nursing goals, monitoring the patient, and specific nursing interventions.

Heart failure (HF) is a pathological condition that impairs the ability of the heart to keep up with the metabolic demands of the body, resulting in multi-organ abnormalities and eventually death1, 2. This can result from conditions that reduce the ability of heart to pump blood which include decreased contractility of myocardium secondary to reduced coronary perfusion, structural causes like damaged heart valves, cardiac muscle or pericardial diseases etc.3 The understanding of the mechanistic details that drive the progression of heart failure is not well understood but molecular and cellular changes point towards the role of neuro-hormonal activation and ventricular remodeling as primary determinants.4 The sequential and progressive upregulation of renin-angiotensin aldosterone system, increased levels of norepinephrine and endothelin-1 play a significant role in the progression of LV dysfunction. Coronary artery disease (CAD), dDiabetes, and hHypertension are among the leading causes whereas other factors such as genetic, alcohol abuse, infectious myocarditis, chemotherapeutic agents etc. also account for significant number of cases.5, 6 The symptoms of decompensated HF are very non-specific (shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, etc.) and need evaluation in the context of the overall clinical picture, which includes signs like extremity edema, jugular venous distention, S3).5, 7 Tests like BNP, ECG, CXR, echocardiography, C-MRI allow confirmation of the

In year 2000 and 2010, an estimated 1 million hospitalizations for Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), of which most of these hospitalizations were for those aged 65 and over, the share of CHF hospitalizations for those under age 65 increased from 23% to 29% over this time period (Hall, Levant, & DeFrances, 2012). According to Held (2009), acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) ensues when cardiac output fails to meet the demand of the body’s metabolic needs. The fluid volume overload makes the unstable condition necessitates instant treatment for the reason that it impairs perfusion to systemic organs, endangering their function.

My patient was admitted into hospital for chest pain and edema to upper and lower extremities. Patient has a past medical history of hypertension, has a pacemaker and stent.

When a patient’s heart is not preforming properly or a disease if affecting the blood volume, the heart will increase or decrease it’s contractility overall changing the systolic blood pressure. With congestive heart failure, the act of sodium, chloride, and water retention is detected. This is in result of the Renin-Angiotensin System. When there is a decrease in