What is diastolic heart failure?
Is it serious heart disease?
What are its symptoms and causes?
Is it possible to cure it?
The most important information you will find in the following article is.
Let's learn about diastolic heart failure and some important information about it.
What is diastolic heart failure?
Diastolic heart failure is a type of heart failure, or what is medically called heart failure.
Diastolic heart failure has several other names in the English language, such as (Heart failure with normal ejection fraction), and (Heart failure with preserved systolic function).
The heart needs to get enough rest and relaxation between beats, and this relaxation comes in the form of relaxation in the heart muscles.
The blood in it is pumped to the rest of the body in the next pulse, and so on.
Diastolic heart failure arises when the ability of the muscles of the left ventricle to relax for some reason is weakened, as the ventricle begins to receive less blood, and therefore begins to pump less blood to the rest of the body.
The ventricle can contract to pump blood out but is unable to relax normally to receive the blood flowing into it.
With left ventricular stiffness, the heart may try to compensate for the failure by increasing the pressure inside the ventricle in an attempt to stimulate the ventricle to receive greater
amounts of blood, and over time this may cause blood to accumulate in the left atrium and lung, which may lead to fluid congestion. The appearance of symptoms of heart failure.
Diastolic heart failure causes and risk factors
Heart failure is more prevalent, especially among women. Here are some factors and causes that may increase the chances of developing diastolic heart failure:
1. Getting old
With age, some changes may occur in the circulatory system, as the heart and blood vessels may become less flexible and more susceptible to stiffness, which may increase the chances of developing some heart problems, such as diastolic heart failure.
2. Problems and diseases of the circulatory system
Some diseases and problems of the circulatory system may increase the chances of developing diastolic heart failure, especially the following problems:
Hypertension; As high blood pressure and the accompanying need for the heart to work with double effort may cause the heart muscles to enlarge and increase their thickness, which may lead to hardening, and this stiffness may cause the emergence of diastolic heart failure.
coronary artery disease; The amount of blood flowing to the heart muscle decreases in people with this condition, or in some cases, blood may stop flowing to the heart muscle
completely, and with the lack of flow that occurs, the heart may have difficulty in diastolic, which may lead to diastolic heart failure.
Other problems, such as aortic stenosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, high cholesterol, and heart attack.
3. Diabetes
Diabetes may affect the heart, causing the walls of the heart to thicken, which may lead to hardening of the heart or certain parts of it over time, and this hardening of course may increase the chances of developing diastolic heart failure.
4. Other factors
Here are some other factors that may play a role in raising your chances of developing diastolic heart failure:
Obesity, or lack of movement.
Thyroid disease.
Excessive alcohol intake.
pregnancy in some cases.
Symptoms of diastolic heart failure
These are some of the symptoms that a person with different types of heart failure may have, including heart failure of the diastolic type:
The rapid increase in body weight.
A continuous cough.
Heart palpitations, or irregular heartbeats.
Nausea, or poor appetite.
Weakness and fatigue.
Edema of the abdomen or lower extremities.
Breathing difficulties and disturbances.
dizziness and lightheadedness;
An increased need to urinate at night.
Diastolic heart failure diagnosis
To diagnose this type of heart failure, the patient is usually subjected to a set of tests and analyzes, which may include the following:
Physical examination of the patient.
blood tests;
Chest X-ray.
Echocardiogram.
Electrocardiogram.
Other tests, such as stress tests and heart catheterization.
Diastolic heart failure treatment
There is no definitive treatment for diastolic heart failure, but it is possible to keep the patient's condition under control as much as possible through the following:
Adopting a healthy lifestyle, including eating a healthy diet, quitting smoking, exercising regularly, and maintaining weight within healthy levels.
Taking some types of medicines under the supervision of a doctor, such as the following medicines: Diuretics and high blood pressure medicines.