Heart Failure Flashcards
What is heart failure?
Condition in which the heart is unable to pump sufficiently to maintain blood flow to meet the body’s needs
What is the main cause of heart failure? Name some other causes
Ischaemic heart disease (IHD)
Other causes: Hypertension Dilated cardiomyopathy (pathogen/drugs/alcohol/poisoning/pregnancy/idiopathic) Vascular heart disease/congenital Restrictive cardiomyopathy eg amyloidosis Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Pericardial disease High output heart failure Arrhythmias (ie AF)
What are the LV end systolic and diastolic volumes?
Systolic~75ml
Diastolic ~ 150ml
*therefore ejection fraction 50%
What 4 factors effect cardiac output?
HR
Aortic and peripheral impedance (after load-ie increase in BP)
Myocardial contractility (reduced = less CO)
Venous capacity (LV preload, nothing going in= nothing coming out)
What effect does an increased end diastolic pressure have on cardiac output?
Increases it to a point
*the force developed in muscle fibre depends on the degree to which the fibre is stretched
What is left ventricular systolic dysfunction?
Increased LV capacity but reduced LV cardiac output
It is the thinning of the myocardial wall due to fibrosis and necrosis of myocardium and activity of matrix proteinases
What are the further complications of LV systolic dysfunction?
Mitral valve incompetence (LA-> LV, cusps don’t change in size so as the walls of LV stretch the valve cusps get pulled apart)
Neuro-hormonal activation (the heart is more exposed to hormones (ie adrenaline) therefore there is a higher risk of MI)
Cardiac arrhythmias (electrical impulses effected, bundle branch block= LV and RV contract at different times. Potential life threatening)
What are the structural heart changes that can occur to cause Heart failure?
- Loss of muscle
- Uncoordinated or abnormal myocardial contraction (see on an ECG)
- Changes to ECM: increase in collagen (type 3 5% becomes type 1 at 25%) and slippage in myocardial fibre orientation
- Change of cellular structure and function: myocytolysis and vacuolation of cells, myocyte hypertrophy, SR dysfunction, changes to Ca2+ availability and/or receptor regulation
How can a MI lead to heart failure?
The heart remodels to protect itself. The myocytes have no remodelling capacity
How does hypertrophy cause heart failure?
Hypertrophy- reduced volume within LV so LV enlarges (dilates) so cardiac output is maintained
What are the two neuro-hormonal systems that are targetted by drug therapy to treat HF?
Sympathetic NS
RAAS
How does HF affect the sympathetic NS?
The SNS tries to compensate for the heart.
Baroreceptor-mediated response
What are the early compensatory mechanism performed by the Sympathetic NS to deal with HF?
The whole idea is to improve CO:
- Cardiac contractility (increase inotropy)
- Arterial and venous vasoconstriction
- Tachycardia
What are the long term deleterious effects that the sympathetic NS can have when it is trying to compensate for HF?
- Beta-adrenergic receptors are down-regulated /uncoupled
- Chronic exposure to noradrenaline can be bad because; it can induce cardiac hypertrophy/myocyte apoptosis and necrosis via alpha receptors, it can induce up regulation of the RAAS
Ultimately what are the results of sympathetic activation in heart failure?
Myocardial hypertrophy
Decreased contractility
Myocyte damage