Characteristics Of Incident Hf At Diagnosis
Among 12,285 newly diagnosed HF cases, 4195 were inpatient diagnoses and 8090 were outpatient diagnoses. The average number of years between the first Geisinger encounter and diagnosis date was 6.6 years. The median age of new HF cases was 76 years and 51% were female. HF cases had large amounts of cardiovascular comorbidity with 60% having coronary atherosclerosis, 25% prior myocardial infarction, 34% cerebrovascular disease, and 37% atrial fibrillation. Clinically documented symptoms near, or prior to, the HF diagnosis date were highly prevalent with 62% having documented dyspnea, 53% chest pain, 43% edema, and 31% syncope.
Fatigue was clinically documented in 4827 of the incident HF cases. Patients with fatigue were on average older, more likely to be female, had more cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular comorbidity, and more additional symptoms including dyspnea, chest pain, edema, syncope, and palpitations . Though absolute differences were small, patients with fatigue had several worse laboratory parameters, including markers of nutrition and multiple red blood cell indices . Patients with fatigue were also more likely to be prescribed several medications, though absolute differences across fatigue status groups were small .
What Are The Common Early Symptoms Of Heart Failure In Adults
Most of the common symptoms of heart failure are also associated with other conditions.
But if you have any symptoms that are recurrent or persistent, or if you have two or more common early signs of heart failure, its a good idea to seek medical care. A medical professional can assess your symptoms and determine if heart failure is the cause.
Common early symptoms of heart failure include:
- shortness of breath
- trouble sleeping, or sleeping on extra pillows
- waking up at night short of breath
- loss of appetite or nausea
- heart palpitations
Next, well explain a bit more about why each of these symptoms can be caused by heart failure.
What Is My Dizziness Telling Me
Dizziness isnt all created equal. It can cause you to feel off balance, light-headed, faint or like youre spinning, a condition known as vertigo. Dizziness itself isnt a disease, but its often a symptom of an underlying health issue that may or may not be serious.
Dizziness tells you something is going on with your body, says Dr. Yvette Pellegrino, a family medicine physician at Beaufort Memorial Ladys Island Internal Medicine. It can be associated with a sudden drop in blood pressure, motion sickness and inner ear infections. It can also be a side effect of a medication youre taking.
Other health issues associated with dizziness include the following:
- Multiple sclerosis
Getting to the root cause is important, especially if you experience dizziness frequently or it impacts your day-to-day activities. Always ask your doctor about dizziness associated with a medication. You should also see a doctor about dizziness if you experience a fever over 101 degrees Fahrenheit, weakness, hearing loss or other unusual symptoms.
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Chest Discomfort Is Linked To Heart Attacks But What About Signs Of Heart Failure Valve Problems And Irregular Heartbeats
Chest pain is not always present in people with heart disease. Instead, other symptoms can be the signals that alert you to heart disease.
âAny symptom that seems to be provoked by exertion and relieved by rest could be heart-related. Particularly in people with underlying risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, tobacco use, a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, and a strong family history of heart disease, other symptoms besides chest pain may be the clue to a heart problem,â says Dr. Randall Zusman, a cardiologist with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
When any of the following symptoms appear with no obvious reason, pay attention and report them to your doctor.
Warning Signs And Symptoms Of Heart Disease
Heart disease often develops over time. You may have early signs or symptoms long before you have serious heart problems. Or, you may not realize you are developing heart disease. The warning signs of heart disease may not be obvious. Also, not every person has the same symptoms.
Certain symptoms, such as chest pain, ankle swelling, and shortness of breath may be signals that something is wrong. Learning the warning signs can help you get treatment and help prevent a heart attack or stroke.
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What Causes Fatigue In Heart Disease
In general, people with heart problems experience fatigue when their heart cant pump enough blood to meet the bodys demands. When that happens, the body chooses to pump blood to the most vital areas first, including the heart and brain. As a result, other areas such as the limbs and muscles receive less blood flow, leading to the sensation of fatigue. Fatigue can be associated with muscle or kidney issues and lower cardiac function in people without diagnosed heart disease.
Heart Conditions That Cause Dizziness
There are many heart conditions that can cause dizziness. Moreover, it is said that dizziness is one of the major symptoms observed when you are suffering from a particular heart disease. But which are these conditions? Let us find outâ¦
There are many heart conditions that can cause dizziness. Moreover, it is said that dizziness is one of the major symptoms observed when you are suffering from a particular heart disease. But which are these conditions? Let us find out
Dizziness is the sensation of lightheadedness and feeling that you might faint. The spatial orientation also leads one to a feeling of the room spinning around them. The period for which this feeling persists defines the intensity of the dizziness, which in turn defines the seriousness of the dizzy feeling. There are numerous common causes of dizziness, many of which are not very serious, and relief is possible without any treatment. However, there are also some causes of dizziness that need immediate medical attention.
Causes of dizziness can be both, cardiovascular as well as non-cardiovascular. In addition, sometimes certain medications are also known to cause dizziness. However, the common, but serious causes of dizziness include hypoglycemia, sudden , heart conditions and anemia. You may feel dizzy even if you are mentally troubled and suffering from stress. Some diseases and disorders can also make you feel dizzy, among several other things.
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When To Schedule A Medical Appointment
Talk with a medical professional if you notice any symptoms of heart failure. While having just one of these symptoms might not indicate heart failure, its still worth bringing up with a doctor, especially if youre at risk for heart failure.
If you notice any of the symptoms discussed above, monitor them to see how long they last. If your symptoms lasts for more than a week or two, or if you develop multiple symptoms, make an appointment as soon as possible.
Early treatment can prevent complications and help you stay healthy.
There are several risk factors for heart failure. Any one of these risk factors can lead to heart disease. Your risk goes up when you have a combination of factors.
The risk factors for heart failure include:
Treat Your Heart Disease
When heart disease itself is causing fatigue, treating your condition may help alleviate the symptom. There are many treatments for heart disease, including medication, surgery, and lifestyle changes. Finding an effective treatment can help improve the overall health of your heart, allowing it to more effectively pump all the blood your body needs.
As one member explained, I felt brand-new when I woke up from the operation and could do more than I had before, like walking and enjoying the world. You have a new lease on life because your heart has been fixed. Another wrote, After a year, I felt well enough to climb and bike.
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Your Body Gets Tired When You Do A Lot Of Work And This Is A Healthy Response That Asks You To Take Rest But Do You Know When Should You Be Worried About Fatigue Read Below Call Us For More Information
Whether you have a newborn, are burning the candle at both ends, or have been up all night, some fatigue is entirely normal. However, if you have constant fatigue that interferes with your day-to-day tasks even with a full night of sleep, there is likely something more serious underlying your heavy eyelids that may concern the health of your heart. At Sterling Heart Care, our doctors and medical professionals provide excellent treatment for any heart-related fatigue disorder!
When To Call The Doctor
If you have any signs of heart disease, call your health care provider right away. Donât wait to see if the symptoms go away or dismiss them as nothing.
- You have chest pain or other symptoms of a heart attack
- You know you have angina and have chest pain that doesnât go away after 5 minutes of rest or after taking nitroglycerine
- You think you may be having a heart attack
- You become extremely short of breath
- You think you may have lost consciousness
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Traditional Understanding Of Heart Failure
Historically, heart failure was thought to be a disorder of its pumping function and the ejection fraction therefore, these became an important component and determinant of the condition. The increasing prevalence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and the current lack of disease-modifying therapy for this group of patients raise the question again of whether we truly understand the mechanisms that drive the entire spectrum of the heart failure syndrome. How can all the different described types of heart failure be linked up to create a spectrum and a story that is easily understandable? Can we link the relationship of the core mechanism of heart failure with EF and then with the types of HF such as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction , HFPEF or even with the old classification of high-output, low-output, forward and backward failure, right and left heart failure? Unless we progress further in answering these questions, discovering treatment for the entire heart failure population will be difficult.
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Heart Failure Patient Population
All patients meeting the following criteria were included in this study: receiving health care services through Geisinger for at least a 2-year period between January 2001 and December 2013 being free of HF for at least 2 years following the first Geisinger encounter as judged by the absence of HF diagnosis codes at all encounters during this interval having at least one primary care encounter at Geisinger during the HF-free period and developing incident HF as defined by the presence of HF diagnosis codes at either one inpatient or two outpatient encounters after the HF-free period. These inclusion criteria are designed to capture a representative, community-based sample of HF patients receiving all or most of their health care through Geisinger. For this study, primary care encounters are defined as clinical visits to a department of family medicine or general internal medicine within Geisinger. The 2-year HF-free period is considered an optimum blanking period for valid exclusion of pre-existing HF among individuals entering the Geisinger EMR system. HF diagnoses are based on the following International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision codes: 398.91, 402.X, 404.X, or 428.X. ICD-9 codes can be found within multiple EMR domains, including encounter diagnoses , problems lists, and billing. The date of HF diagnosis was defined as the first day an HF diagnosis code was found.
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Prognosis By Ejection Fraction
Ejection fraction is a measure of how much blood is pumped out of your heart each time it contracts. A healthy heart has an EF of between about 55 percent to 75 percent.
Some people with CHF have a reduced EF. This means their heart is pumping less blood out to the rest of their body than a healthy heart. Studies have shown that people who have CHF and a reduced EF have a more challenging outlook than people with CHF who do not have a reduced EF.
The exact survival rates varied among studies, but have shown that EF has an impact on prognosis. Your doctor will have the best information about how your ejection fraction can affect your prognosis.
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Life Expectancy With Congestive Heart Failure
The life expectancy of someone with congestive heart failure depends on the type of heart failure, the cause, the stage of the disease, and how effective treatment is.
When heart failure results from cardiomyopathy or coronary artery disease, a person typically has a less positive outlook than someone with heart failure in its earliest stage.
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What Is The Importance Of Ejection Fraction
Your ejection fraction is one way to measure the severity of your condition. If its below normal, it can mean that you have heart failure. Your ejection fraction tells your healthcare provider how good of a job your left or right ventricle is doing at pumping blood. Usually, your EF number is talking about how much blood your left ventricle is pumping out because its your heart’s main pumping chamber.
Several non-invasive tests can measure your EF. With this information, your healthcare provider can decide how to treat you or find out if a treatment is working as it should.
A normal left ventricular ejection fraction is 53% to 70%. An LVEF of 65%, for example, means that 65% of the total amount of blood in your left ventricle is pumped out with each heartbeat. Your EF can go up and down, based on your heart condition and how well your treatment works.
Vomiting Or Stomach Pain
If a patient experiences intense stomach pains, and they begin to feel nauseated or begin to vomit, this could be an early warning sign of an impending heart attack. Statistics indicate that women are more likely to experience vomiting, indigestion and stomach pain as precursors to a heart attack, however, men can experience these symptoms as well. The one essential thing the patient should do is to keep a mental record or to document all of the symptoms they are experiencing so they can alert medical professionals of these symptoms in case it is early warning signs of a heart attack, and not a stomach virus. Specifically, if an individual vomits and experiences consistent chest pain that lasts for a few minutes or more, they may very well be experiencing a heart attack. In this case, the patient should call 9-1-1 immediately to get emergency help and follow the operators instructions. In the event of a heart attack, every second counts between life and death.
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Why Does Chronic Heart Failure Cause Breathlessness And Fatigue
Traditional explanations for the symptoms of fatigue and breathlessness experienced by patients with chronic heart failure focus on how reduced cardiac output on exercise leads to impaired skeletal muscle blood supply, thus causing fatigue, and on how the requirement for a raised left ventricular filling pressure to maintain cardiac output results in reduced pulmonary diffusion owing to interstitial edema, thus causing breathlessness. However, indices of left ventricular function relate poorly to exercise capacity and symptoms, suggesting that the origin of symptoms may lie elsewhere. There is a specific heart failure myopathy that is present early in the condition which may contribute largely to the sensation of fatigue. Receptors present in skeletal muscle sensitive to work are overactive in patients with CHF, presumably as a consequence of the myopathy, and their activity is related both to the ventilatory response to exercise and breathlessness, and to the sympathetic overactivity of CHF. In the present paper, we review the systemic consequences of left ventricular dysfunction to understand how they relate to the symptoms of heart failure.
What Is The Prognosis And Life Expectancy For Congestive Heart Failure
- The degree to which other organ systems are involved and the severity of other accompanying conditions
- The personâs symptoms and degree of impairment
- Other factors that remain poorly understood
With the availability of newer drugs to potentially favorably affect the progression of the disease, the prognosis in congestive heart failure is generally more favorable than that observed just 10 years ago. In some cases, especially when the heart muscle dysfunction has recently developed, a significant spontaneous improvement is not uncommonly observed, even to the point where heart function becomes normal.
Heart failure is often graded on a scale of I to IV based on the patientâs ability to function.
The prognosis of heart failure patients is very closely associated with the functional class.
An important issue in congestive heart failure is the risk of heart rhythm disturbances . Of those deaths that occur in individuals with congestive heart failure, approximately 50% are related to progressive heart failure. Importantly, the other half are thought to be related to serious arrhythmias.
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What The Research Tells Us
Cardiac anomalies could partially explain why a small amount of exertion can wipe out someone with ME/CFS.
While the studies suggest that abnormalities of the heart and nervous system contribute to the high rates of cardiac failure in people with ME/CFS, that doesnât mean theyâre the only factors. Other factors such as weight and sedentary lifestyle may contribute as much or even more.
In the end, most of these studies are small and need far more investigation. What they should highlight, however, is the increased need to monitor the cardiac health of people living with ME/CFS. This is especially true for those with severe symptoms, as well as anyone who has risk factors for cardiac disease .
If you have ME/CFS, talk to your healthcare provider about heart health, any symptoms you have, and what you can do to lower your risk of cardiac disease.
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