Cardiomyopathy and heart failure
Heart failure (HF), often referred to as chronic heart failure (CHF), occurs when the heart is unable to pump and maintain blood flow to meet the body's needs. Common causes of heart failure include coronary artery disease including a previous myocardial infarction (heart attack), high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, excess alcohol use, infection, and cardiomyopathy of an unknown cause. These cause heart failure by changing either the structure or the function of the heart.
There are two main types of heart failure: heart failure due to left ventricular dysfunction and heart failure with normal ejection fraction depending on the ability of the left ventricle to contract is affected, or the heart's ability to relax. The severity of disease is usually graded by the degree of problems with exercise. Heart failure is not the same as myocardial infarction (in which part of the heart muscle dies) or cardiac arrest (in which blood flow stops altogether).Other diseases that may have symptoms similar to heart failure include obesity, kidney failure, liver problems, anaemia and thyroid disease.
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Dilated cardiomyopathy
- Restrictive cardiomyopathy
- Pericardial diseases
- Myocarditis