Heart Failure

Quick facts about heart failure

  • Heart failure describes when your heart is damaged and not pumping blood around your body effectively.

  • It’s a serious yet common condition caused by a variety of underlying issues.

  • Your doctor will try to work out what’s causing your heart failure so we can improve the pumping ability of your heart.

  • Medicines and lifestyle changes can help relieve the symptoms.

  • Surgical treatments and devices may help improve heart function.

About the condition

Heart failure describes when your heart is damaged and not pumping blood around your body effectively. Heart failure is common in Australia, especially among older people. Some other facts about heart failure:

  • It often develops when the heart is damaged by a heart attack or other health problem.

  • It can be mostly right-sided (supplies blood to the lungs to get oxygen) or left-sided (supplies oxygenated blood to the rest of the body) but it usually affects both sides of the heart.

  • It does NOT mean your heart is about to stop.

  • It’s a serious condition, however, people can live with heart failure for many years, depending on their age, general health and the underlying cause.

What causes heart failure?

Besides heart attack, conditions that can lead to heart failure include:

  • Hypertension (high blood pressure) 

  • Cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) 

  • Myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle, usually from an infection)

  • Heart valve or heart rhythm problems 

  • Chronic lung disease

  • Overactive or underactive thyroid

  • Severe chronic kidney disease 

  • Heart abnormalities present at birth (congenital heart disease)

  • Side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy

The damage usually presents in one of two ways: heart stiffening (when the heart doesn’t fill with blood as well) or heart weakening (when the heart doesn’t pump as well). 

What are the symptoms of heart failure?

When the heart doesn’t pump efficiently, the body tries to compensate in other ways. While helpful at first, these changes can be very damaging over time. Symptoms include:  

  • Increased heart rate – when the heart tries to compensate by beating faster, which can eventually result in enlargement of the heart (hypertrophy).

  • Kidney failure – when the kidneys start to retain salt and water to increase the amount of blood in the circulation, eventually causing poor blood flow and fluid build-up in the body.

  • Damage to heart muscle – fluid retention can stretch (dilate) the heart muscle; high pressure or enlargement of the heart can lead to problems with the heart valves; arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) can also develop. 

How do you diagnose heart failure?

Simply listening to your heart and breathing; and checking your legs and abdomen for excess fluid can tell us a lot about your heart function. Monitoring your weight over time can also help us work out if there is excess fluid build-up.

The following tests may be used to help diagnose heart failure and its cause: 

  • Electrocardiogram (ECG) – to record your heart’s electrical activity and detect signs of heart failure such as heart enlargement. 

  • Chest X-ray – to check the size of the heart and any fluid in the lungs

  • Blood tests – to help determine the cause and severity of heart failure and check for complications

  • Echocardiogram (echo) – (heart ultrasound) to show the size of the heart chambers and how effectively the heart is pumping blood.

How do you treat heart failure?

It’s important to treat the underlying cause of your heart failure, as well as trying to improve the pumping ability of your heart.

Medicines and lifestyle changes can help relieve the symptoms, while implantable devices and surgical treatments may help improve heart function.

We’ll discuss the best options for you based on your condition and symptoms at your consultation.