Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos

Heart Failure

Heart failure is one of the most difficult problems in cardiology. The heart, which is a powerful pump, can not send the body the amount of blood it needs because its strength has diminished. This is because several situations have negatively affected it by reducing its contractility.

Heart Failure – Causes

It can be caused by a myocardial infarction (heart attack) that destroys parts of the heart. From valves problems that can cause its cavities to expand. From cardiomyopathies. They either weaken the myocardium or cause thickening of the walls that make it difficult to promote blood.
From myocarditis, ie inflammation of the myocardium that affects it and reduces its functionality. And other causes can cause heart failure.

Heart Failure – Symptoms

Her symptomatology is intense dyspnoea even at rest, easy fatigue and great weakness. A very serious development of the disease is so-called pulmonary edema. The heart can not push the blood, let it flood the lungs and fill the cells where only air is normally found. So the patient feels drowned because he can not breathe and if not properly treated can lead to death. Death even lingers because of very serious arrhythmias. The patient’s activities are reduced. He fills his body with liquid that he holds and his sleep becomes troublesome.

The patient’s quality of life is affected, many patients have to make enormous effort to walk a few feet and the dyspnea they experience is intense. Others are asleep because they lie down because of gravity that the fluid returns to the lungs and causes them severe dyspnea. Others after a while sleeping and opening the window to breathe.

Heart Failure – Treatment

Heart failure is a very heavy and dangerous condition that requires a lot of experience from the cardiologist to understand the dangers. Give the right treatment. To inform the patient and his / her environment about the measures to be taken and to modify the patient’s activities without compromising the quality of his / her life. The patient  is a chronically ill person who, depending on his experience with his experienced cardiologist, depends on how he lives and how much.

Cardiology Office Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos,Marousi