Talk:Heart failure
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Should we include information about congestive heart failure in animals (such as small dogs), and the treatment, etc.? -- siliconwafer 9/21/04
What exactly is meant by the word "Congestive" ... does that mean congested like my noes gets when I have a cold? Whats it congested with? -- (unsigned)
- "Congestive" in this case means "distended with fluid". Your question implies that you think it's the heart that congested, but it's named because the heart is unable to pump efficiently enough to prevent fluid accumulation in other places, like the lungs or liver or peripheral tissue. So the "congestion" that gives the syndrome its name is found in the lungs or peripheral tissue, causing difficulty breathing or leg swelling. That being said, it's sort of an old-fashioned term, and the word "congestive" is mostly filler... one might just as well say "heart failure" in most instances. - Nunh-huh 06:26, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Expansion!
This article could do with a WP:MCOTW nomination. It needs image support, more on radiology, myocardial myodynamics, underlying causes and mechanisms, the significance of a renal impairment in CCF etc etc. JFW | T@lk 10:58, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Misuse
From the article: "The term heart failure is frequently misused, especially when given as cause of death: it is not synonymous with "cessation of heartbeat"."
So, is the term "congestive heart failure" ever given as a cause of death? Shawnc 21:16, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
- Well, it is, but the actual mechanism of death would still be ventricular fibrillation, pulseless electrical activity etc. Congestive heart failure itself is extremely unpleasant and carries a fairly strinky prognosis, but is not synonymous with cardiac arrest. JFW | T@lk 22:19, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Expansion
Maybe there could be more information on heart failure, like the difference between each type of heart failure (left, right, congestive), the symptoms involved, specific treatment given. Could be made so that profesionals can use the information to. 82.35.34.152 (talk • contribs)
[edit] Dyspnea
Im a nursing student and I have found that in this article it is mentioned CHF causes SOB, however it doesnt outline the cause of the SOB in reation to CHF. ie: The pathophysiology behind the dyspnea
- Pulmonary congestion and pulmonary edema. JFW | T@lk 10:41, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] PMI
The term PMI used in this article is a new one on me, and looking around on the internet (none of my books mention it), it seems to be the same as the apex beat - which is a more widespread term. I've therefore changed the wording in this article, created a page for PMI and re-directed it to apex beat.
Also, I've never heard of obesity causing heart failure by squashing the heart so I removed the phrase "In obesity cases, the heart is squashed by fat surrounding it, giving it too little room to beat" and changed the sentence to include coronary artery disease. The only common restricitive causes of CHF I can find are restricitive cardiomyopathies and pericardial disease, neither of which seem to be related to epicardial fat restricting beating. I found one case report of a woman with Pfeifer-Weber-Christian disease who did have some changes in the epicardial fat, but this wasn't the only pathology and I don't think it's really common enough to justify the statement. There is also adipositas cordis, but this is vanishingly rare and again doesn't warrant a generic sentence about all obese people.
If anyone thinks that this is wrong, please let me know. Cheers Iain Joncomelately 09:11, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] How do most of you rate the readability of the article?
I've just read through the article, hope fully to gain more of an insite into my Mum's condition. I'm sure the article is accurate to the nth degree - unfortunatly it may as well be written in a foreign language!
I'm told that the mark of a great author is someone who can take a complex, highly technical subject and present it in a way that's easy to understand to non-technical folks. I for one would be eternally grateful if someone with such an ability could attempt this with this article.
222.154.235.62 08:05, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
- No need to be so forceful. Just state which terms are particularly unclear, and we can work something out. Experts often presume that their audience understand some of their jargon, which may explain the article's poor readability. JFW | T@lk 10:37, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Glucose
High glucose in nondiabetic patients admitted with heart failure is predictive of poor outcome[1]. JFW | T@lk 10:37, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Pointing the Bone
I understand that people that die psychosomatically - from voodo, the "pointing the bone" of the Australian aboriginies, and people that "turn their face to the wall" in hospitals - the immediate cause of death is congestiove heart failure.
Is this true? Is it worth mentioning?
[edit] A hard topic to write about
This article has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, CHF is not only a big topic, but an extremely complex one. There are fellowships that focus on just heart failure and transplant cardiology.:-(
Anyway, just adding a reference that should be in the article. It basically says that women are more likely to have diastolic dysfunction and more comorbid conditions while men are more likely to have systolic dysfunction. Some day I may take a stab at a rewrite of the article...
Mendes LA, Davidoff R, Cupples LA, Ryan TJ, Jacobs AK. Congestive heart failure in patients with coronary artery disease: the gender paradox. Am Heart J. 1997 Aug;134(2 Pt 1):207-12. PMID 9313599
Ksheka 15:30, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Cardiac Arrest
I just want to check something. In the article introduction, it is mentioned that heart failure is "not to be confused with...cardiac arrest, which is the cessation of normal cardiac function in the face of heart disease." However, is cardiac arrest only associated with heart disease? I was under the impression that cardiac arrest merely referred to cessation of heartbeat. Checking out cardiac arrest, I got "A cardiac arrest, or circulatory arrest, is the abrupt stop of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively during systole." The article also mentions hypoxia and hypothermia as possible causes of cardiac arrest, neither of which are disease related. Could someone please clarify this?
- Good call. I changed this in the top of the article. Ksheka 13:25, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
