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disease information

Heart Failure

What is a heart failure?

The heart is made up of four chambers: two upper chambers, or atria, and two lower chambers, or ventricles. The heart itself is constructed of special muscle tissue which contracts each time an electrical impulse is sent through it. This muscle contraction is known as the heartbeat. The electrical impulse starts near the top of the heart, and then travels down through the atria which contract and pump blood into the ventricles. From here, the impulse spreads through the ventricles, which in turn contract and pump blood into the arteries leading out of the heart.5

In a normal heart, a set amount of blood enters the heart with each heartbeat and is then pumped out again to all parts of the body via the blood vessels. If you have heart failure disease your heart is unable to pump enough blood through the heart and around your body. In some cases, the heart also fails to pump all the blood out of the heart as it beats. This inability to properly move blood around the body causes fluid to build up and swelling to occur in various places in the body.

Blood carries vital supplies of oxygen and nutrients to the cells. If you have heart failure these cells don’t receive enough blood, and are deprived of the oxygen and nutrients they need to function properly. This results in fatigue which is compounded by the fact that your heart is working harder in order to pump the same amount of blood around the body.1

Chronic heart failure usually occurs because the heart muscle is damaged in some way. There are three major types of the condition:1

  • Systolic heart failure: ‘Systolic’ refers to the period in the heartbeat cycle when the heart pumps or contracts. This type of congestive heart failure means that the heart is not able to pump blood around the body properly. Systolic heart failure is the most common of the three types.
  • Diastolic heart failure: ‘Diastolic’ refers to the period in the circulatory cycle when the heart is resting between contractions. This type of heart failure is less common than systolic heart failure and happens when the heart is unable to relax normally between beats. This means that it’s unable to fill up with enough blood.
  • Combination heart failure: This is a combination of the two types listed above, where the heart neither fills up properly, nor is able to pump out the optimal amount of blood to the body. 5

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Last Updated 17/06/2009 16:38:40
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