Congestive Heart Failure: Stop it Before it Stops You

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic progressive condition that affects the pumping power of your heart muscle. While often referred to as heart failure, CHF specifically refers to the stage in which fluid builds up within the lungs and body due to the weakened heart muscle. As blood flow out of the heart slows, blood returning to the heart through the veins backs up, causing congestion in the body’s tissues. Eventually, blood and other fluids can back up inside of your lungs, abdomen, liver and lower body.

In the early stages of congestive heart failure, you might not experience any symptoms, but, as it goes untreated, you will experience changes in your body.

Symptoms you may first notice:

  • Fatigue
  • Swelling in your ankles, feet and legs
  • Weight gain
  • Increased need to urinate, especially at night

Symptoms that indicate your condition has worsened:

  • Irregular heartbeat
  • A cough that develops from congested lungs
  • Wheezing
  • Shortness of breath, which may indicate pulmonary edema
  • Decreased appetite due to “feeling full”

Symptoms that indicate a severe heart condition:

  • Chest pain through the upper body
  • Rapid breathing
  • Skin that appears blue due to a lack of oxygen in the lungs
  • Fainting

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, visit your primary care provider immediately.

Congestive heart failure may result from conditions that directly affect your cardiovascular system including hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary artery disease and valve conditions. You can also be at risk if you have diabetes, thyroid disease and obesity.

Heart failure is a long-term, chronic condition that gets worse over time. There are four stages of heart failure:

Stage A: Considered pre-heart failure. You are at high risk of developing heart failure because you have one or more of the conditions below:

  • Hypertension
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Diabetes
  • History of alcohol abuse
  • Family history of heart failure

People at this stage have no problems with the structure of their heart yet from congestive heart failure. They may experience little to no symptoms and if they do, it is usually from one of the conditions above.

Stage B: The structure of the heart starts to be affected at this stage including reduced pumping of the heart and enlarged ventricles. This could also be from a previous heart attack. Oftentimes, you are still asymptomatic at this stage.

Stage C: At this stage, you will start showing symptoms of heart failure due to the structural heart disease. These symptoms may include fatigue or breathlessness and usually occur because of a squeezing function of the left ventricle or the pumping of the chamber of the heart.

Stage D: This stage is severe, and people will have advanced structural heart disease and display symptoms, even while they are at rest. At this stage, you will need specialized treatment.

There are a few types of heart failure you need to know:

  1. Left-sided heart failure: The most common type of heart failure is left-sided heart failure. The left side of the heart must work harder to move the same amount of blood around the body. This may cause a fluid buildup in the lungs and make breathing challenging as it progresses. These fluids give congestive heart failure its name. There are two types of left-sided heart failure.
  2. Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), also called systolic failure: The left ventricle loses its ability to contract normally. The heart cannot pump with enough force to push enough blood into circulation.
  3. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), also called diastolic failure (or diastolic dysfunction)The left ventricle loses its ability to relax normally (because the muscle has become stiff). The heart cannot properly fill with blood during the resting period between each beat.
  4. Right-side heart failure: The heart’s pumping action moves “used” blood that returns to the heart through the veins through the right atrium into the right ventricle. The right ventricle then pumps the blood back out of the heart into the lungs to be replenished with oxygen. Right-sided or right ventricular heart failure usually occurs as a result of left-sided failure. When the left ventricle fails, increased fluid pressure is transferred back through the lungs, ultimately damaging the heart’s right side. When the right side loses pumping power, blood backs up in the body’s veins. This usually causes swelling or congestion in the legs and ankles as well as swelling within the abdomen, such as the GI tract and liver (causing ascites).

Treatment for congestive heart failure depends on the severity of your condition. Some of the recommended treatments are:

  • Self-care – Quitting smoking, physical exercise, weight loss or a low sodium diet
  • Medications – Beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, blood pressure support, dietary supplements, diuretics and others
  • Devices– Implantable cardioverter defibrillator, cardiac resynchronization therapy and left ventricular assist device (LVAD)
  • Surgical Procedures – Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, also referred to as angioplasty), coronary artery bypass, valve replacement and, in advanced cases, either a heart transplant or LVAD

Although it can be difficult living with a chronic condition like congestive heart failure, many people learn to manage the symptoms and enjoy full lives. People who report greater levels of improvement and emotional well-being often build new habits around eating better, tracking and managing their symptoms and exercising.

For best long-term success and maintaining a good quality of life, it is important to see a heart failure specialist.


For more information, visit UofLHealth.org to find care or a physician. For additional resources about congestive heart failure, visit Heart.org.

UofL Health – Heart Hospital is the only area hospital dedicated to comprehensive heart care. To learn more, call 502-587-4000.

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Article by: Mark Slaughter, M.D.

Mark Slaughter, M.D., is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon primarily practicing with UofL Physicians – Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at UofL Health – Heart Hospital. Dr. Slaughter is professor of Surgery and chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Louisville and has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. In addition, he serves as the director of the Heart Transplant and Mechanical Assist Device Program at the University of Louisville and UofL Health – Jewish Hospital. Dr. Slaughter currently serves as a consultant to the FDA Medical Device Review Panel, National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR grant reviewer and previously served two terms for the Health and Human Services Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee. Dr. Slaughter has served as the president of the American Society Artificial Internal Organs and president of the International Society of Rotary Blood Pumps. Dr. Slaughter is the editor-in-chief of the American Society of Artificial Internal Organs Journal and also serves as an associate editor for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

All posts by Mark Slaughter, M.D.