The Cardiovascular System Is A Very Complex System In That

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).

The prevalence of congestive heart failure is on the increase both in the United States and all over the world, and it is the leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly population. Congestive heart failure is a progressive disease generally seen in the elderly, which if not properly managed, can lead to repeated hospital admissions or death. Heart failure means that the heart muscle is weakened. A weakened heart muscle may not be strong enough to pump an adequate amount of blood out of its chambers. To compensate for its diminished pumping capacity, the heart may enlarge. Commonly, the heart's pumping inefficiency causes a buildup of blood in the

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).

Inside our body there is a powerful muscular pump, which is known as the one of the main organs in the human body. This hollow, cone shaped, pump lies slightly left within the center of the chest called our heart. The heart is made up of different structures and actions in order for it to work, combined with a network of blood vessels form what we know as the cardiovascular system.

The cardiovascular system, however, would not be able to effectively complete these functions without help from what is sometimes referred to as the body’s hardest-working organ- the heart. Approximately the size of a fist, the heart is contains four chambers (the uppermost are called the atria and the lowermost are called the ventricles) and four valves. Additionally, the heart is surrounded by the pericardium, a structure that serves to protect the heart, keep the heart stabilized in the chest, and

The heart is basically a pump that has to circulate the blood around the body delivering oxygenated blood to our organs and then returning deoxygenated blood to our lungs. There are four chambers in the heart, two atria and two ventricles. There are four main valves, mitral, aortic, tricuspid and pulmonary7b.

Cholesterol and fatty deposits build up in the heart's arteries, causing less blood to reach the heart muscle. The muscle becomes damaged and the remaining heart tissue has to work harder.

The heart, blood and blood vessels make up the basis of the cardiovascular system also known as the circulatory system. The average human body contains approximately 5 litres of blood which is carried around the body via a network of blood vessels split into three types; arteries, veins and capillaries. The arteries are the largest of the three vessels and carry blood away from the heart. Veins carry blood to the heart and are smaller than arteries, then finally the smallest vessels known as capillaries distribute the oxygen rich blood to organs whilst simultaneously picking up the waste carbon dioxide and water from the organs to transport back to the heart where it can be pumped into the lungs to be exhaled.

The heart is a very strong muscle that has one major job. The heart’s job is to pump blood throughout the entire body. The heart is made up of 4 chambers, and 4 valves. There is the right and left atrium, and a right and left ventricle. The atriums are the superior chambers, and the ventricles are inferior chambers. The left ventricle is the most important, because that is where the blood travels through to go to the aorta, and eventually the rest of the body (Taylor 2015).

According to the American Heart Association (2015), heart failure is defined as “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”. Congestive heart failure is a progressive illness that effects millions of Americans every year. Many other illnesses can lead to the development of congestive heart failure. Examples of these diseases include: coronary artery disease, past heart attack, high blood pressure, abnormal heart valve, heart muscle disease such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy or inflammation such as myocarditis, congenital heart disease, severe lung disease, diabetes, obesity and asthma. (American Heart Association, 2015 (Centers for

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

The body also does other things to help compensate for the loss in power in the heart. Blood vessels narrow to keep the blood pressure up. The body diverts the majority of the blood to the heart and the brain. Eventually the heart can’t keep up and the person will suffer from fatigue, breathing problems or various other symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, loss of appetite, nausea, confusion, or increased heart rate. Factors such as smoking, being overweight, having a diet high in fat and cholesterol, and not exercising can contribute to heart failure.

A healthy heart pumps blood continuously through the circlutory system. It’s normal size is a little larger than a fist. The heart has four chambers, two on the right and two on the left. The two upper chambers are called the atria and the lower two are known as the ventricles. The right atrium takes in deoxygenated blood from the rest of body and sends it back out to the lungs through the right ventricle where the blood becomes oxygenated. Oxygenated blood travels from the lungs to the left atrium, then onto the left ventricle, which pumps it to the rest of the body.

The heart is what keeps all living breathing species alive, animals or humans. If the heart was to shut down but the nervous system continued and was active, it would not matter. The entire body would shut down because once the supplier no longer delivers what is needed; organs will no longer function correctly, therefore causing irreversible damage. Arteries are what carried the rich oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the organs throughout the body. The Veins are what bring back the carbon dioxide blood to the heart. It then has to be put through a cycle so that it can be shipped back out. Blood travels from the right atrium through the tricuspid valve, to the right ventricle. From there, it is pumped to the lungs, the oxygen-rich blood goes to the left atrium and then through the mitral valve to the left ventricle where it goes to the aorta to be pumped around the body (Colombo 7). What looks to be a complicated process that would take hours or minutes is actually done in a matter a seconds.