Peter Alagona, M.D., Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute
Question: What is heart failure, and what are the different types of heart failure?
Answer: Heart failure was kind of a wastebasket diagnosis -- congestive heart failure -- because many adults who would develop certain signs or symptoms or clinical findings were said to have congestive heart failure. However there are many different conditions which can cause patients to have certain symptoms which can mimic or be similar to heart failure.
So, today we try to be a little bit more specific and a little bit more scientific in determining what the cause of the patient's symptoms or presentation are, and if it's cardiac -- if there's a specific heart reason for it -- previous heart attacks, long-standing high blood pressure, certain other kinds of conditions -- then we term it heart failure.
