ABSTRACT

Heart failure describes the clinical syndrome that develops when the heart cannot
maintain an adequate cardiac output. The heart pumps blood inadequately, leading to reduced
blood flow, back-up (congestion) of blood in the veins and lungs, and other changes that may
further weaken the heart. Causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease, heart attack,
high blood pressure, heart valves disorders, inflammation of heart muscle (myocarditis),
congenital heart defects, severe lung disease, diabetes, severe anemia, overactive thyroid
gland (hyperthyroidism), abnormal heart rhythms. Congestive heart failure is abnomarlity of
cardiac function that leads to the inability of the heart to pump blood to meet the bodys basic
metabolic demands or when it can do so only with an elevated filling pressure. Types of
congestive heart failure are left-sides heart failure (Systolic dysfunction and Diastolic
dysfunction) and right-sides heart failure. Mechanisms of heart failure are renin-angiotensin-
aldosterone system, sympathetic nervous system, enlargement of the muscular walls of the
ventricles (ventricular hypertrophy).