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Heart Failure
- Topic Overview
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- Cause
- Symptoms
- What Increases Your Risk
- When to Call a Doctor
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- Treatment Overview
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- Living With Heart Failure
- Coping With Your Feelings
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- Other Treatment
- End-of-Life Decisions
- Other Places To Get Help
- Related Information
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Many problems can cause heart failure, including damage to the heart's muscle, valves, or electrical system. These can all affect how well the heart pumps.
Problems that damage the heart muscle
- High blood pressure
- Heart attack
- Coronary artery disease
- Diabetes that is not controlled
- Alcohol, illegal drugs (such as cocaine), and some prescription medicines (such as those for chemotherapy)
- Heart problems you've had from birth (congenital heart disease)
- Infection or inflammation of the heart muscle (such as myocarditis)
Other things that damage the heart's valves
- Valve problems you've had since birth
- Infection of a heart valve (endocarditis)
- Aging
- Rheumatic fever
Problems with the heart's electrical system
- Fast, slow, or irregular heart rhythms, including atrial fibrillation
- Electrical signals that don't flow as they should from the upper to the lower part of the heart (heart block)
Other problems
- Disease of the sac around the heart (pericarditis)
- Postpartum heart failure. This rare problem can happen late in a woman's pregnancy or within the first 5 months after delivery.
- Severe anemia
- Hyperthyroidism
Certain triggers, such as too much sodium or not taking medicines the right way, may suddenly make heart failure worse. This can sometimes cause deadly problems such as pulmonary edema or cardiogenic shock.
More information |
| By: | Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: December 15, 2010 |
| Medical Review: | E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD - Cardiology | |
© 1995-2011 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
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