Understanding Heart Failure

[tinkerbella]

I was watching my favorite local news tonight and they were talking about a new device they can implant in the heart and you wave a wand over it and it goes to the doctors office and gives him info every day if you have CHF. Well I never found the info yet on the page but, there is so much info on understanding heart failure that I never really understood that when I was dxed with dystolic dysfunction that was part of heart failure. One Year later on the echo it was gone. Hummm, where did it go? I feel more lately like it's back again with the shortness of breath and tachy. Maybe time to due another echocardiogram.

So, I have put the link here as there are so many links with so much information about heart failure.

http://health.abcnews.com/channel/right-si...ailure_articles

I know I have heard many others talk about their ejection rate. I remember when I first met my cardio before they knew what was wrong with me. He told me I had a stiff heart and I never found that info anywhere else. Duh, my first level one cardio plummy stress test came back saying suggestive of congestive heart failure... Awe we live and we learn.

Now I understand why he keeps doing all those BNP tests...

Anyone else ever have this? Does it come and go?

[firewatcher]

It may just LOOK like CHF or it could BE CHF.

Reduced stroke volume in POTS

[potsgirl]

Bellamia~

Did they say anything about cardiomyopathy? If your heart muscle is rigid, you may have either hypertrophic or restrictive cardiomyopathy, too. I had dilated cardiomyopathy, which is when the heart muscles get too loose and can't pump efficiently. I had an ejection fraction of about 35% when I was diagnosed. The EF doesn't mean too much, however, since some people can have an EF of 45% and be in CHF and feel horrible, while others can have an EF of 15% and feel fine.

During my last echo, I found that I had developed diastolic dysfunction, too. This of course means your heart is too rigid and can't bring the appropriate amount of blood in, which can leave the remaining blood pooling around your lungs. From what I've read on the Mayo site, it's not too uncommon in older women, and not too scary of a thing unless it becomes severe enough to put you into diastolic dys CHF. This can be hard to diagnose, even with an echo.

I'm going in for my next echo in the next two weeks, and I'll see what's happened to my DD. You should probably do another echo, too. Please let me know how it goes, you know I care a lot about you!

Cheers,

Jana