Can heart failure cause suffocation?

Written by Xie Zhi Hong
Cardiology
Updated on November 28, 2024
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Heart failure is caused by various reasons leading to the heart's blood supply being relatively or absolutely insufficient, causing a series of pathological and physiological disorders in patients. Patients often manifest symptoms like difficulty breathing, tightness in breath, and even a feeling of suffocation. However, generally, the symptoms caused by heart failure are not these. This is because suffocation occurs due to airway narrowing or the narrow space around the patient, leading to insufficient oxygen intake, causing a series of syndromes. Therefore, although people with heart failure feel suffocated, they are not actually suffocating; it is just a manifestation of inadequate circulatory supply.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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What medicine is used for acute heart failure?

The most common clinical manifestation of acute heart failure is severe dyspnea, hypoxia, and even changes in consciousness, which are very common in clinical practice. For treatment, morphine can be administered intravenously or subcutaneously to reduce patient agitation and relieve myocardial oxygen consumption. Secondly, plastic can be used for rapid intravenous push. Thirdly, vasodilators can be used, such as glyceryl trinitrate and sodium nitroprusside intravenous infusion. Fourthly, positive inotropic drugs can be used, such as dopamine and dobutamine. Additionally, cardiac glycosides, such as digoxin, can be used.

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Written by Wei Shi Liang
Intensive Care Unit
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Causes of Acute Heart Failure

The main causes of acute heart failure include coronary heart disease, valvular disease, hypertension, and cardiomyopathies, such as toxic cardiomyopathy or hypothyroidism-related cardiomyopathy, as well as idiopathic cardiomyopathy. Myocarditis and arrhythmia-related causes can also lead to heart failure, but there are often triggers present clinically. Common triggers include poor treatment compliance, arrhythmias, anemia, infections, myocardial ischemia, excessive fluid intake, poor dietary control, and increased cardiac output, such as during strenuous activity and pregnancy, which can lead to increased cardiac output and cause heart failure. Conditions such as excessive fluid volume, hypertension, hyperthyroidism, and pulmonary embolism can also trigger heart failure.

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Written by Zhang Yue Mei
Cardiology
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Heart Failure Drug Therapy

Due to some myocardial diseases that cause damage to the myocardium, or other reasons that increase the heart's load, heart failure may occur. Clinical treatment involves strengthening the heart and promoting diuresis, improving blood vessel function, increasing the heart’s contractility, reducing the heart’s resistance, and decreasing the volume of blood returning to the heart. Through these effective drug treatments, heart failure can be corrected. Patients with heart failure should avoid excessive fatigue and maintain a low-salt diet to prevent increasing the burden on the heart.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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Clinical manifestations of heart failure

Heart failure is divided into left heart failure, right heart failure, and total heart failure. Left heart failure mainly manifests as exertional dyspnea or nocturnal paroxysmal dyspnea. It is often accompanied by palpitations, orthopnea, coughing, coughing up pink frothy sputum, accompanied by palpitations, fatigue, etc. Right heart failure primarily presents with symptoms of the digestive system, such as abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting, edema, oliguria, etc. Once heart failure occurs, active treatment must be administered. In clinical practice, treatments mainly include cardiotonics, diuretics, vasodilators, and other symptomatic treatments.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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The basic mechanisms of heart failure

Heart failure is not an independent disease; it can be caused by various factors, such as myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, and various myocarditis, which lead to changes in the heart structure and subsequent cardiac dysfunction. Heart failure is mainly due to a disturbance in the heart's contractile function or diastolic function, which prevents the heart from adequately ejecting the returning blood volume. This results in pulmonary congestion, systemic circulation congestion, and a series of syndromes caused by insufficient arterial perfusion.