Narayana Health Care

Heart Failure, also known as congestive heart failure is a medical condition where the heart muscles become weak and are unable to pump blood efficiently throughout the body. Heart Failure often develops after other conditions like Coronary artery disease, faulty heart valves, birth defects, arrhythmias, high blood pressure, stiffness of heart have damaged or weakened the heart.

Symptoms of Heart Failure

• Shortness of breath
• Fatigue or weakness
• Irregular heartbeat
• Swelling in legs, ankles or feet
• Persistent cough or wheezing
• Lack of appetite
• Lightheadedness or difficulty in concentrating
• Fluid retention

Risk Factors of Heart Failure

• High blood pressure
• Coronary artery disease
• Diabetes
• Congenital heart diseases
• Irregular heartbeats
• Obesity

Diagnosis of Congestive Heart Failure

There are a few tests commonly in evaluating and treating Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).

• Echocardiogram: A painless test that uses sound waves (ultrasound) to take moving pictures of your heart.
• Right & Left Heart Cath: This is an invasive testing procedure performed in the Cardiac Cath Lab.
• Sleep Study: A Sleep Study or Polysomnogram (PSG) is a multiple-component test, which electronically transmits and records specific physical activities while you sleep.
• Cardiopulmonary exercise test: CPET lets your doctor see how your lungs, heart and muscles react together when you exercise.

Heart failure could be a chronic sickness needing long management. However, with treatment, signs and symptoms of heart failure can improve, and the heart sometimes becomes stronger.

Advanced Heart Failure

Advanced failure means that the condition has progressed to wherever ancient therapies and symptom management aren’t any longer operating. About 10 percent of heart failure patients have advanced heart failure. Their treatment decisions can become more complex.

Advanced Heart Failure Clinic at M.S.Ramaiah Narayana Advanced Heart Center

At MS Ramaiah Hospital, the heart failure clinic provides comprehensive care for patients with heart failure. We take referrals for patients at any stage from pre-diagnosis onward. We work within a framework dictated by the heart failure cardiologist, heart failure nurse and preventive and rehabilitation specialist. The waiting times for the clinic area unit short – usually 1-2 weeks.

Advanced failure clinic deals with patients would like an assessment for brand new therapies. We offer treatments that can reduce your symptoms and help your heart pump as best it can. But with benefits come risks, which you should discuss in detail with your doctor before choosing a treatment.

Treatment options available:

• Devices (pacemakers and defibrillators)
• Heart transplant
• Hemofiltration
• Ventricular assistive devices

Patient support services

The heart failure team will routinely refer you to a heart failure nurse specialist for regular follow up. These nurses will be in touch with you when you are at home, provide you with information on managing the condition of heart failure, and provide you with a telephone number for support.

Heart failure rehabilitation services

At MS Ramaiah, our objective isn’t just to improve your health, but also to make you stronger and lower your risk of more issues. Our treatment team including doctors, nurses, dietitians, physiotherapists, mental health specialists will help you along the way as per on your needs. They will provide you with support related to:

• Physical activity
• Lifestyle education
• Mental and emotional care

Palliative Care

End-stage heart failure has one amongst the biggest effects on the quality of life of any advanced disease. Patients living with serious unwellness have known the subsequent as their top-priority desires from the health care system: adequate pain and symptom management, avoidance of inappropriate prolongation of dying, the achievement of a way of management, relief of the burden on others, and a strengthening of relationships with loved ones. Although failure patients area unit usually assumed chiefly to suffer from fatigue and symptom, a majority have pain, and depression is extremely common. Other sources of suffering embrace puffiness, insomnia, anxiety, confusion, anorexia, and constipation. Palliative care improves outcomes, together with patient and family satisfaction with care and symptom management.

Dr. Nagamalesh U M | Senior Consultant Heart Transplant Cardiology – Adult | M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre, Bangalore