Acute heart failure is a condition caused by heart failure, as an organ that acts as a pump in the human body, it is responsible for the necessary blood circulation. Therefore, the occurrence of this ailment, its symptoms and treatment are so relevant.
Heart failure (acute) in itself is not a disease. It is rather a consequence and manifestation of those painful conditions that affect the myocardium or impede its work. These include arterial hypertension, myocarditis, coronary heart disease, as well as its defects, diffuse lung diseases and cardiomyopathy.
Acute heart failure implies limited contractility of the heart muscle. Since it performs the function of communicating the blood with the necessary speed, then, if the contractility is impaired, this entails untimely delivery of various nutrients and oxygen to the tissues and organs of the human body. And also it becomes impossible to remove metabolic products from them (organs and tissues).
As a result, malfunctions of normal chemical processes in absolutely all cells of the body. And as a result, dysfunctions of all organs and tissues of the body occur, and most importantly, the heart. A similar violation is characterized by a number of objective and subjective signs that allow you to diagnose directly heart failure.
A sharp decrease in contractility can mainly affect only the muscles of either the right or left ventricle. But most often it happens that a similar pathology is observed in both parts simultaneously. The first case is designated as right ventricular failure, the second is left ventricular failure, the latter is total or combined heart failure.
As a rule, certain changes lead to such a state. So, the failure of a particular part of the heart is a consequence of pathological changes in the muscles of this organ. Secondary changes in it, which occur during the prolonged existence of obstacles to the work of the muscle itself, can also serve as a reason.
Acute heart failure in the initial stages of its development is characterized by stagnation of blood in the pulmonary circulation, namely in the lungs. This leads to the appearance of edema in them. And this means that the simultaneous development of acute pulmonary failure is also inevitable . A similar condition when considering its clinical picture is often fraught with death.
First of all, this ailment is accompanied by cardiac asthma. As a rule, suddenly the patient begins to feel a lack of air, which entails a sharp shortness of breath, in which inhalation becomes very difficult. If timely emergency care is not provided, a person may begin the process of filling fluid with pulmonary vesicles (alveoli). And this leads to difficult gas exchange, that is, to the occurrence of oxygen starvation.
Acute heart failure, the symptoms of which are very obvious and make it possible to accurately diagnose an ailment, requires immediate treatment. Starting from the first minutes of the development of this shortage, patients complain of severe shortness of breath, shortness of breath, severe feeling of lack of air, and increased heart rate. In some cases, there is a loss of consciousness (short-term, like fainting), and sometimes collapse.
It should be noted that most often acute heart failure develops at night. Suddenly, the patient wakes up due to lack of air. There is an increase in shortness of breath and the appearance of a cough with the discharge of a characteristic frothy light sputum, and sometimes with an admixture of red blood. Sticky cold sweat appears , the skin becomes ashen-blue, lips are especially cyanotic.
When the process begins to turn into pulmonary edema, the condition worsens significantly. All symptoms (listed above) progress, bubbling breathing occurs, and sputum becomes abundant and foamy. Shortness of breath develops into suffocation, veins on the neck swell. But consciousness in this case, as a rule, nevertheless remains clear. Be sure to ensure that the patient is in a half-sitting position before the arrival of the doctor.
Acute heart failure in children often develops against the background of previously formed defects with repeated rheumatism. And also in cases of severe myocarditis, hypertensive conditions. Often, such a pathology occurs with congenital heart defects, when the phase of adaptation to certain hemodynamic disorders occurs. As a rule, these are the first one and a half years of a child's life.