Late-stage symptoms of heart failure

Written by Liu Ying
Cardiology
Updated on September 17, 2024
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The most common symptom of late-stage heart failure is dyspnea, which is often persistent. Even in a resting state, there can be shortness of breath. Mild activities, such as eating and urination, can exacerbate the breathing difficulties. Patients in the late stages of heart failure often experience persistent edema, and conventional diuretics are not effective. Patients may also exhibit restlessness, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, reduced urine output, and other symptoms. Additionally, low blood pressure can be observed on cardiac monitoring, among other findings.

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Written by Wang Li Bing
Intensive Care Medicine Department
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What are the causes of chronic heart failure?

Chronic heart failure is also relatively common in clinical settings, mainly referring to patients with existing heart diseases. If a patient with a long history of hypertension experiences lung infection and fatigue, it can trigger an acute episode of chronic heart failure. At this time, the patient may experience symptoms such as difficulty breathing and fatigue. It is crucial to seek prompt medical attention, where common clinical treatments include cardiotonic, diuretic, and vasodilator therapies. For chronic heart failure, treatment should also actively address and remove the underlying causes and treat the primary disease to save the patient's life.

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Written by Zhang Yue Mei
Cardiology
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"Heart failure"

Heart failure is one of the most common complications of various organic heart diseases. It occurs when the heart's contractile force or diastolic function is impaired, preventing blood from being delivered to vital organs and throughout the body, leading to clinical symptoms caused by venous congestion and arterial ischemia, called heart failure. Diseases that can cause heart failure include coronary heart disease, pulmonary heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, and viral myocarditis. Patients with heart failure need to use effective medications to treat the diseases causing heart failure while minimizing the burden on the heart. They should adhere to a low-fat and low-salt diet, ensure sufficient rest, maintain regular bowel movements to prevent the acceleration of heart failure. (Specific medications should be administered under the guidance of a physician.)

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Written by Liu Ying
Cardiology
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Symptoms of chronic heart failure

Chronic heart failure can be divided into left heart failure, right heart failure, and total heart failure. The symptoms of left heart failure primarily manifest as congestion in the pulmonary circulation, that is, a reduction in cardiac output. Patients may experience varying degrees of breathing difficulties, starting with exertional dyspnea, then orthopnea, followed by paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, and eventually acute pulmonary edema. Additional symptoms may include coughing, expectoration, hemoptysis, fatigue, tiredness, dizziness, reduced exercise tolerance, and symptoms of insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues, including oliguria and kidney damage. The symptoms of right heart failure can present as gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal distension, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, and also exertional dyspnea. When both left and right heart failures occur, it is referred to as total heart failure. In cases of total heart failure, symptoms of both left and right heart failures may be present.

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Written by Liu Ying
Cardiology
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Causes of Heart Failure

Heart failure can be divided into acute heart failure and chronic heart failure. There are many causes of acute heart failure, such as acute coronary syndrome, hypertensive emergency, acute massive pulmonary embolism, right ventricular infarction, severe pulmonary hypertension, and so on. Chronic heart failure can also have many causes, for example, coronary artery disease and hypertension have become the main causes of chronic heart failure, rheumatic heart disease, and valvular heart disease can also cause chronic heart failure. Chronic cor pulmonale and high-altitude heart disease also have a certain incidence rate in China, among others.

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

Chronic heart failure primarily includes left heart failure, right heart failure, and total heart failure. Left heart failure can present with varying degrees of respiratory difficulty, such as exertional dyspnea, orthopnea, and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, etc. Secondly, symptoms can include coughing and expectorating, coughing up pink frothy sputum, and patients may experience fatigue, dizziness, and palpitations, among others. Right heart failure mainly manifests as gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal distension, poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, etc. Total heart failure encompasses the clinical manifestations of both right and left heart failure.