Thank you for your question, heart failure can occur after other conditions have damaged or weakened the heart and the heart itself can sometimes become ‘stiff’ within the walls of the chambers- these are known as ventricles- which can also cause heart failure. Heart failure can involve the left side or right side of the heart or both sides of the heart and commonly it begins on the left side within the left ventricle which is the hearts main pumping chamber. Below you will find a list of the types of failure that can occur and the symptoms associated with it:
Any of the following conditions can damage or weaken the heart and cause symptoms of heart failure to develop.:
A heart attack occurs if plaques formed by the fatty deposits in your arteries rupture. This causes a blood clot to form, which may block blood flow to an area of the heart muscle, weakening the heart's pumping ability and often leaving permanent damage. If the damage is significant, it can lead to a weakened heart muscle.
Over time, the heart muscle may become thicker to compensate for the extra work it must perform. Eventually, your heart muscle may become either too stiff or too weak to effectively pump blood.
Over time, this extra work can weaken your heart. Faulty heart valves, however, can be fixed or replaced if found in time.
Genetic factors play an important role in several types of cardiomyopathy, such as dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, left ventricular noncompaction and restrictive cardiomyopathy.
You can also read more about heart failure here:
And here: Heart failure - BHF
As you can see heart failure comes in several forms and there are many treatments which are available to treat and control this successfully once a diagnosis has been made.
We do hope you will find the above information useful, and please don’t hesitate to contact us again if we can be of any further help,
Answered by the Health at Hand nurses
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