Heart failure is the condition where the person’s heart is so weak that it is unable to pump enough blood throughout the body. It is unable to offer different body organs with essential nutrients and oxygen supply. The symptoms usually seen in heart failure include breathlessness, tiredness, fatigue, weakness, swelling in different body parts. Sudden death is usually seen as a consequence of heart failure but it is not the feature that categorizes the heart failure.
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Certain electrical changes are experienced in patients suffering from heart failure due to which they experience a lethal form of cardiac arrhythmias. There is an alteration in the Potassium and Calcium current theme which results in abnormal conduction of heart rhythm along with the activation of the heart. There are around 10-15 million individuals worldwide who suffer from heart failure and more than 100,0000 people die annually due to heart failure. There has been a vast improvement in medical science but still, the medical field cannot treat myocardial failure and almost 20% of patients die each year during the early diagnosis. So heart failure serious and can lead to death? The answer is YES! Patients with heart failure suffer from an unexpected death in around 50% of the cases and patients with heart failure have around 6-9 times high chances to suffer from sudden cardiac death rather than the normal population.
The mechanism of sudden cardiac death is found to be uncertain and this uncertainty is due to a vicious cycle of events. Most often sudden cardiac death is seen because of deadly cardiac arrhythmias like fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. According to WHO sudden death can occur due to loss of mechanical functioning of the heart such as low electrical activity leading to pulseless feeling and ultimately death. The most essential cause of heart failure is coronary artery disease such as heart attack or high blood pressure which can result in damaging effects over the heart muscles i.e. cardiomyopathy or blocks the valves of the heart leading to aortic stenosis. Heart failure can also occur due to disturbed heart rhythms where it beats slowly, rapidly or irregularly i.e. bradycardia, tachycardia or fibrillation.
Heart failure is one of the major issues all around the world. Heart failure is as deadly as cancers and can result in the sudden death of the patients. Sudden cardiac arrest due to heart failure requires immediate treatment like defibrillation and CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation where manual technique is performed by pressing the chest repetitively to increase blood flow towards the brain and keep the heart pumping. Heart failure is a long-term, chronic condition which is categorized into 4 stages i.e. Ranging from the risk of developing heart failure to suffering from advanced heart failure. Several treatment options slow down the progression of heart failure that can ultimately result in death such as lifestyle changes, medications, and cardiac devices. The treatment plan depends on the stage of heart failure. Sudden cardiac death is mostly associated with coronary artery disease. Other than the environmental factors, there are genetic factors as well which result in abnormal heart rhythms. As you might have understood until now that heart failure is a type of systemic pathological state which results in high chances of deaths due to sudden electrical remodeling in the heart along with neurohormonal activation leading to arrhythmias. So the sudden deaths in patients suffering from heart failure is a complex of factors leading to the systemic disease.
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Team Doctor ASKY!