This is the number of new patients who should be receiving help and treatment for heart failure, since SHAPE website was launched on 1st October 2004.
The earlier people are diagnosed and treated, the better and longer their lives will be.
Heart failure is an increasingly common and
extremely serious condition that arises when the heart muscle becomes too weak
to pump enough blood around the body to the vital organs, so depriving them of
oxygen and vital nutrients.
The left heart is a healthy heart with
the blood pumping normally. The right heart is experiencing heart failure.
The muscles of the left ventricle are damaged and have expanded. Therefore
less blood is going to all the parts of the body where it is needed. more about
heart failure>>
Although
heart failure is very serious, many sufferers can improve their condition with
lifestyle changes, appropriate medicines, device therapy or surgery.
60% of people who develop heart failure die within five years of diagnosis. The death rate is particularly high in the initial few weeks following diagnosis.
Weakening of the heart muscle can result from a number of causes, the most common of which are coronary heart disease (CHD) – particularly following a heart attack – and high blood pressure (hypertension).
