Heart failure

What is heart failure?

Heart failure develops when your heart is too weak to properly pump blood throughout your body to meet the body’s nutrition and oxygen needs, resulting in fluid backing up into other parts of the body. This syndrome is also called congestive heart failure.

The amount of blood pumped by the heart is determined by the contraction of the heart muscle (“squeeze”) and the filling of the heart chambers (“relaxation or stiffness”).

Heart failure is classified based on which of these two functions is abnormal. If the “squeeze” function is reduced, the condition is known as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). If the heart pumps normally, but is “stiff” or unable to “relax”, it is called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). In addition, in HFrEF and HFpEF, the dysfunction can be predominantly attributable to the left side of the heart, the right side of the heart, or a combination of both.

The symptoms (shortness of breath, inability to exercise, ankle swelling, inability to lay flat) can come on suddenly (acute) or can come on slowly and worsen over time (chronic). While the symptoms may be identical for all types, the treatment for each of these phenotypes is often different.

Helping heart patients help themselves

Open, ongoing communication with the referring physicians regarding the patient’s progress and eventual discharge from the program is the cornerstone of the Thomas E. Reilly Heart Success Center's mission. Heart patients receive intensive education focusing on techniques for self-care management, telemanagement, access to cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art diagnostic testing. In some cases, a ventricular assist device (VAD) can be used to partially or completely replace the function of a failing heart. Our VAD program has received the Gold Seal of Approval™ Disease-Specific Care Certification from The Joint Commission, demonstrating that it is patient-centered, comprehensive, well developed and has met stringent standards of care.

Our heart care services also include:

• Cardiac rehabilitation
• Integrative medicine
• Impedance cardiography (ICG), also known as thoracic electrical bioimpedance (TEB) – a non-invasive method of measuring changes in blood flow in the heart and lungs over time.
• Acoustic cardiography – a non-invasive technology that enables clinicians to integrate heart sounds and echocardiogram data to measure heart function and blood flow.
• Cardiopulmonary metabolic exercise stress testing (CMET) – a non-invasive test that measures heart, lungs and functional capacity at the same time, providing more comprehensive data than the standard treadmill stress test.
• Transplant evaluation and pre- and post-operative care