What is Heart Failure?

  • Heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle has become weaker than normal.
  • This condition may also be referred to as congestive heart failure (CHF).
  • Heart failure usually occurs gradually over a period of time.
  • In heart failure, the heart is unable to pump enough blood and oxygen to meet the body’s needs. The heart pumps less blood with each beat, so the “ejection fraction” goes down.
  • When this happens, blood that should be pumped out of the heart backs up in the lungs and other parts of the body. This is why many people with heart failure have shortness of breath or swelling in the extremities.
  • As the heart strains to do its work, the heart muscle fibers stretch and the chambers of the heart enlarge. This further weakens the heart’s ability to perform.
  • Because the tissues are receiving less blood and oxygen, they are unable to perform their functions properly. Activities such as walking, climbing stairs and carrying objects become more difficult.

The Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Center specializes in these conditions:

  • Ischemic cardiomyopathy: a term uses to describe patients who have congestive heart failure due to coronary artery disease.
  • Dilated cardiomyopathy:
    a condition in which the heart becomes weakened, enlarged, and unable to pump blood efficiently. The decreased heart function can affect lungs, liver, and other body systems.
  • Diastolic dysfunction:
    when the heart muscle contracts normally, but experiences impaired relaxation. This affects the heart's lower pumping chambers (the ventricles) specifically. Because the ventricle doesn't relax normally, the pressure increases and pumps an abnormally high level of blood on the next heartbeat.
  • Valvular Heart Disease:
    the name given to any dysfunction or abnormality of one or more of the heart's four valves, including the mitral valve and aortic valve on the left side; and the tricuspid valve and pulmonic valve on the right side.
  • Right-sided heart failure:
    also called congestive heart failure; a condition in which the right side of the heart loses its ability to pump blood efficiently.
  • Secondary pulmonary hypertension:
    high blood pressure resulting from cardiac disorders, pulmonary disorders, or both in combination.
  • Congenital heart disease (adult patients):
    congenital heart disease refers to a problem with the heart's structure and function due to abnormal heart development before birth.