If you start to suffer from shortness of breath, your legs swell, you get tired quickly, your pulse is fast, these may be symptoms of heart failure and you should urgently consult a doctor.
The diagnosis of heart failure is given to those patients in whom the heart does not perform well its so-called pumping function, that is, it loses its ability to pump blood normally. The causes of the disease are many and varied - ischemic heart disease, arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction, heart defects, atrial fibrillation, etc.
These heart diseases gradually lead to weakening of the heart muscle and reduced ability to pump blood. And in the end, 60% of people die precisely because of the developed heart failure. To prevent the risk of developing this serious disease, first of all, do not ignore any problems with the heart and blood vessels, consult a specialist who will assign you thorough examinations.
It happens that the ordinary cardiogram does not show anything alarming, but the echocardiography gives quite complete information about the size of the heart muscle and the ejection fraction (the volume of blood that the heart is able to "push out").
Cycle ergometry will show if there is coronary heart disease, daily monitoring of the cardiogram will give information about the work of the organ during sleep and wakefulness, under increased stress and at rest. All the information collected will help the doctor diagnose the problem and prescribe treatment.
Which complaints should you pay attention to first?
If shortness of breath, attacks of suffocation, swelling of the legs, fatigue, palpitations (pulse reaches 120-130 beats per minute instead of 60-90), this is a reason to consult a cardiologist. In some cases, a person practically does not feel any problems in the work of the heart, and the disease is caught when the organ can no longer cope with its work.
Sometimes symptoms of heart failure are dizziness, fainting due to lack of oxygen. That is, blood circulation is clearly disturbed, the whole body suffers, and a person attributes his problems to such a condition as "vegetative-vascular dystonia", thinking that there is no need for treatment. And in fact you should be examined and treated.
