Health encyclopaedia

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

Symptoms of Heart failure

In chronic heart failure, the main symptom is breathlessness, which may occur on mild exertion or even when the affected person is at rest. There may be attacks of sudden breathlessness during the night. As the condition worsens, the tendency to breathlessness increases.

Other symptoms of chronic heart failure include tiredness and the accumulation of fluid in the tissues (oedema), particularly the lungs. The ankles swell and the liver becomes enlarged. In severe cases a considerable amount of fluid accumulates within the abdomen (tummy).

Acute heart failure is when the heart suddenly ceases to function properly. Symptoms may include: 

• severe breathlessness and wheezing, 
• coughing (sometimes with a frothy pink sputum), 
• pale skin and sometimes blueness (cyanosis), 
• low blood pressure,
• sweating, and
• intense chest pain caused by a heart attack.

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