Quick Facts and Questions About Heart Failure

A: Heart failure is a progressive condition in which the heart's muscle becomes weakened after it is injured from something like a heart attack or high blood pressure and gradually loses its ability to pump enough blood to supply the body's needs. Many people don't even know they have it because its symptoms are often mistaken for signs of getting older. Heart failure does not develop overnight - it's a progressive disease that starts slowly and gets worse over time.

A: Heart failure is common, but unrecognized and often misdiagnosed. It affects nearly 5 million Americans. Heart failure is the only major cardiovascular disorder on the rise. An estimated 400,000 to 700,000 new cases of heart failure are diagnosed each year and the number of deaths in in the United States from this condition has more than doubled since 1979, averaging 250,000 annually.

A: The 5 million Americans suffering from heart failure received $28.7 million in research dollars. In comparison, lung cancer research, which affects 390,000 Americans, received $132 million.

A: Less than 50 percent of patients are living five years after their initial diagnosis and less than 25 percent are alive at 10 years. Poor prognosis can be attributed to a limited understanding of how the heart weakens and insufficient private and government funding.

A: Although heart failure may strike at any age, it is more common in people over the age of 65. Heart failure risks include:

High blood pressure
Prior heart attack
History of heart murmurs
Enlarged heart
Diabetes
Family history of an enlarged heart

A: The symptoms of heart failure may be subtle and are often mistaken for normal signs of aging. Common symptoms of heart failure are:

Shortness of breath, which can happen even during mild activity
Difficulty breathing when lying down
Weight gain with the swelling in the legs and ankles from fluid retention
General fatigue and weakness

A: Doctors often order a number of tests when exploring a possible diagnosis of heart failure. The most important of these test is the echocardiogram, or "echo", which tells a person what their ejection fraction (EF) is. The ejection fraction is a measurement of how well the heart is pumping. People with a healthy heart have an EF of about 60 percent, while people with heart failure have an EF of 40 percent or less.

With early diagnosis and newer treatments, people with heart failure are able to continue enjoying their everyday activities and have a more normal life expectancy. Experts now recommend a three to four drug combination to treat heart failure, which include digoxin to help the heart pump better and improve blood circulation and diuretics, sometimes called water pills, to help remove extra fluid in the body and reduce swelling in the legs and ankles. Two newer classes of medications, ACE inhibitors and beta blockers have been shown to slow disease progression and work by blocking certain stress hormones in the body that are believed to be responsible for the progression of heart failure.