Hyderabad: An estimated four to five million people in India suffer from heart failure. Heart failure is a condition where the heart is unable to pump sufficient blood to all parts of the body. Heart failure is a potentially fatal condition, and can be caused by strain on the heart muscles, heart valves, irregular heartbeats and severe blockages in the arteries. It is not the same as myocardial infarction (in which part of the heart muscle dies, or cardiac arrest, in which the blood flow stops completely).
Alcohol or substance abuse, exposure to aggressive treatments for cancer such as radiation and chemotherapy, and severe thyroid disorders can also cause heart failure. The condition of ‘heart failure’ is the end stage condition of the heart, and most patients succumb within one year of the heart being in this degraded condition.
Dr Sai Sudhakar, senior interventional cardiologist says that “the management of heart failure used to be a challenge earlier, but now we have advanced treatments to manage the heart and if a donor heart is available, we opt for heart transplant.” Symptoms of the condition, he says, include include persistent coughing, tiredness, shortness of breath, excess fluid in the lungs, swelling in abdomen, ankles and legs.
