CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM congestive heart failure (CHF) Flashcards
When you see/hear left sided heart failure, think ____
Lungs
S/S of Left sided heart failure
- Pulmonary congestion
- dyspnea
- cough
- blood-tinged frothy sputum
- restlessness
- tachycardia
- S3
- orthopnea
- nocturnal dyspnea
*think pulmonary*
When the right side of the heart starts to fail, the fancy word for it is ____
Cor pulmonal
When the right side of the heart starts to fail, where does it back up to?
the venous system (that’s why you get enlarged organs, edema, weight gain)
S/S of right sided heart failure
- enlarged organs
- endema
- weight gain
- distented neck veins
- ascites
DX heart failure:
Swan ganz catheter… major complications?
- air embolus or pulmonary infarction
Before doing an A- line (arterial line), what must be performed first?
- an allen’s test
How do you perform an allen’s test?
1- put pressure to both the ulnar and radial artery at the same time
2- ask client to close and open hand (the hand should blanch) 3- release the pressure from the ulnar artery while you still have pressure on the radial artery.
4- assess the color of the hand while you still have pressure on the radial artery. the hand should be pink within 6 seconds. *this tells you that the ulnar artery is good enough to provide that hand with blood*
Which artery do most A- lines go in?
radial artery. that’s why we do the allen’s test
When you have an A-line, a ____ cuff has got to be put on the bag of fluid. why?
pressure cuff;
because arteries have high pressure, the blood will come up through the line and into the bag. So, we gotta force the fluid in against the high arterial pressure. or else, they’d bleed out. you’d return and the bag would be full of blood.
NEVER USE AN A-LINE AS AN_____ SITE.
YOU MAY DRAW BLOOD FROM IT, BUT YOU MAY NOT___.
IV;
ADMINISTER MEDS THROUGH IT.
When the patient has an A-line, what are we suppose to check?
-distal circulation and bleeding.
if my patient pulls out his a-line, first thing to do is___
apply pressure
Another way to DX CHF is with a blood test called a ___
BNP (B-type natriuretic peptide)
What is BNP?
BNP is a substance secreted from the ventricles or lower chambers of the heart in response to changes in pressure that occur when heart failure develops and worsens
When you look at a chest xray from a patient with CHF what do you expect to see?
an enlarged heart and pulmonary edema.
what’s an echocardiogram?
An echocardiogram (echo) is a test that uses high frequency sound waves (ultrasound) to make pictures of your heart. The test is also called echocardiography or diagnostic cardiac ultrasound.
