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Heart failure
Heart failure (HF), often called congestive heart failure (CHF) or congestive cardiac failure (CCF), occurs when the heart is unable to provide sufficient pump action to distribute blood flow to meet the needs of the body.[1][2][3] Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition is diagnosedwith echocardiography and blood tests. Treatment commonly consists of lifestyle measures such as smoking cessation, light exercise including breathing protocols, decreased salt intake and other dietary changes, and medications. Sometimes it is treated with implanted devices (pacemakers or ventricular assist devices) and occasionally a heart transplant.
Common causes of heart failure include myocardialinfarction and other forms of ischemic heart disease, hypertension, valvular heart disease, and cardiomyopathy.[4] The term heart failure is sometimes incorrectly used for other cardiac-related illnesses, such asmyocardial infarction (heart attack) or cardiac arrest, which can cause heart failure but are not equivalent to heart failure.
Heart failure is a common, costly, disabling, and potentiallydeadly condition.[4] In developed countries, around 2% of adults suffer from heart failure, but in those over the age of 65, this increases to 6–10%.

Terminology
Heart failure is a global term for the physiological state in which cardiac output is insufficient in meeting the needs of the body and lungs. Often termed "congestive heart failure" or CHF, this is most commonly caused when cardiacoutput is low and the body becomes congested with fluid.
It may also occur when the body's requirements for oxygen and nutrients are increased and the demand outstrips what the heart can provide, (termed "high output cardiac failure"). This can occur from severe anemia, Gram negative septicaemia, beriberi (vitamin B1/thiamine deficiency), thyrotoxicosis, Paget's disease, arteriovenous fistulae,or arteriovenous malformations.
Fluid overload is a common problem for people with heart failure but is not synonymous with it. Patients with treated heart failure will often be euvolaemic (a term for normal fluid status), or more rarely, dehydrated.
Medical professionals use the words "acute" to mean of rapid onset and "chronic" of long duration. Chronic heart failure is therefore a long termsituation, usually with stable treated symptomatology.
Acute decompensated heart failure is exacerbated or decompensated heart failure, referring to episodes in which a patient can be characterized as having a change in heart failure signs and symptoms resulting in a need for urgent therapy or hospitalization.[8]
There are several terms which are closely related to heart failure, and may be the causeof heart failure, but should not be confused with it:
* Cardiac arrest and asystole refer to situations in which there is no cardiac output at all. Without urgent treatment these result in sudden death.
* Myocardial infarction ("Heart attack") refers to heart muscle damage due to insufficient blood supply, usually as a result of a blockedcoronary artery.
* Cardiomyopathy refersspecifically to problems within the heart muscle, and these problems can result in heart failure. Ischemic cardiomyopathy implies that the cause of muscle damage is coronary artery disease. Dilated cardiomyopathy implies that the muscle damage has resulted in enlargement of the heart. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy involves enlargement and thickening of the heart muscle.

Signs and symptoms
SignsLeft-sided failure
Common respiratory signs are tachypnea (increased rate of breathing) and increased work of breathing (non-specific signs of respiratory distress). Rales or crackles, heard initially in the lung bases, and when severe, throughout the lung fields suggest the development ofpulmonary edema (fluid in the alveoli). Cyanosis which suggests severe hypoxemia, is a late sign of extremely...