For Patients

Heart failure

Heart failure is a weakness of the heart in which the heart can no longer pump adequately and thus supply the body with insufficient blood, oxygen and nutrients. Many factors can cause heart failure to develop. One important cause, for example, is excessively high blood pressure, as a result of which the heart has to exert more force to pump blood around the body. In the long term, this leads to changes in the heart muscle. Classic symptoms are breathlessness during exertion and water retention in the body (e.g. edema in the legs, but this is also possible in the lungs). This can be accompanied by palpitations (tachycardia) and other cardiac arrhythmias. In order to provide the best possible support for the heart in addition to drug therapy, minimizing risk factors, such as obesity or smoking, is very important. A regular measurement will indicate whether a frequently elevated pulse is present or whether the pulse is within the range of normal values.

AT-WEB-30-10-2021