The excess weight adds a lot of stress on the workload of the heart. Keep your feet elevated to reduce swelling. Ask your provider about support hose as a preventive treatment for daytime leg swelling.
Besides taking your medicine as instructed, an important part of treatment is lifestyle changes. These include diet, physical activity, stopping smoking, and weight control.
Improve your diet by including more fresh foods, cutting back on how much sugar and saturated fat you eat, and eating fewer processed foods and less salt.
Make sure to keep any appointments that were made for you. These can help better control your congestive heart failure. You will need to follow up with your provider on a routine basis to make sure your heart failure is well managed. If an X-ray, electrocardiogram ECG , or other tests were done, you will be told of any new findings that may affect your care. Have chest pain or discomfort that is different than usual, the medicines your doctor told you to use for this don't help, or the pain lasts longer than 10 to 15 minutes.
The following may be signs that your heart failure is getting worse. Call your healthcare provider right away if any of these happen:. Sudden weight gain. This means 3 or more pounds in one day, or 5 or more pounds in 1 week. Breathing trouble at night. This means waking up short of breath or needing more pillows to breathe. Was this helpful? Yes No Tell us more. Check all that apply. Wrong topic—not what I was looking for. It was hard to understand. It didn't answer any of my questions.
I still don't know what to do next. Once heart failure is diagnosed, it becomes important to monitor increases in body weight that may result from increased fluid retention. One review of studies suggests that increases in edema may also predict worsening heart failure. Fluid buildup in the feet and legs, known as pedal edema, is a common early sign of heart failure. But there are other types of edema that may be the result of heart failure, including:.
There are three main types of heart failure. The left side of the heart is responsible for pumping blood out of the heart to the rest of the body. Left-sided heart failure can develop when the left ventricle lower left chamber of heart can no longer pump enough blood out of the heart and into circulation. Left-sided heart disease sometimes involves edema in the lungs. When blood returns to the heart, it enters the right atrium top right chamber and then moves to the right ventricle bottom chamber , which pushes blood into the lungs to receive oxygen.
When the right side of the heart weakens, blood coming in from the veins can start to back up. This is called right-sided heart failure , which usually results in edema in the lower extremities. The term congestive heart failure is often used interchangeably with heart failure. But it really just refers to a state of heart failure in which fluid buildup in the body is serious enough to require medical attention. This can result in both pulmonary edema and edema of the abdomen, lower legs, and feet.
Treating edema usually means treating the underlying cause of the swelling. Persistent leg pain and swelling can indicate a blood clot deep in your vein deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. Edema occurs when tiny blood vessels in your body capillaries leak fluid.
The fluid builds up in surrounding tissues, leading to swelling. In some cases, however, edema may be a sign of a more serious underlying medical condition.
Several diseases and conditions may cause edema, including:. If you are pregnant, your body retains more sodium and water than usual due to the fluid needed by the fetus and placenta. This can increase your risk of developing edema.
A chronic illness — such as congestive heart failure or liver or kidney disease — can increase your risk of edema. Also, surgery can sometimes obstruct a lymph node, leading to swelling in an arm or leg, usually on just one side. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Exams and Tests. The health care provider will perform a thorough physical exam. The provider will listen to your lungs and heart with a stethoscope to check for: Abnormal heart sounds Crackles in your lungs, called rales Increased heart rate tachycardia Rapid breathing tachypnea Other things that may be seen during the exam include: Leg or abdominal swelling Abnormalities of your neck veins which can show that there is too much fluid in your body Pale or blue skin color pallor or cyanosis Possible tests include: Blood chemistries Blood oxygen levels oximetry or arterial blood gases Chest x-ray Complete blood count CBC Echocardiogram ultrasound of the heart to see if there are problems with the heart muscle Electrocardiogram ECG to look for signs of a heart attack or problems with the heart rhythm.
Oxygen is given through a face mask or tiny plastic tubes are placed in the nose. A breathing tube may be placed into the windpipe trachea so you can be connected to a breathing machine ventilator if you cannot breathe well on your own. Medicines that may be used include: Diuretics that remove excess fluid from the body Medicines that strengthen the heart muscle, control the heartbeat, or relieve pressure on the heart Other medicines when heart failure is not the cause of the pulmonary edema.
Outlook Prognosis. When to Contact a Medical Professional. Alternative Names. Lung congestion; Lung water; Pulmonary congestion; Heart failure - pulmonary edema. Lungs Respiratory system.
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