Cardiac Failure Symptoms Review

One of the main cardiac failure symptoms that is common across almost all kinds of heart conditions like congestive heart failure, acute heart failure, diastolic heart failure and left sided heart failure is chest pain. While there are also other heart failure symptoms that are common, each cardiac failure has its own peculiarities.
Some of the symptoms of heart failure are breathlessness, difficulty in breathing, fatigue, weakness, cough, fluid accumulation, swollen legs, feet and ankles, lung congestion, wheezing and more. An episode of heart failure may include chest pain, tightening of the chest, profuse sweating and nervousness. While shortness of breath is the most common first symptom that is noticed in young people, older people may experience sleepiness and disorientation before the heart failure diagnosis can be made.
The left sided heart failure symptoms include fluid accumulation in the lungs. This results in shortness of breath during any kind of exercise or exertion. As the condition worsens shortness of breath can be experienced even while resting. Fatigue is another common symptom since the limb muscles do not receive adequate amounts of blood from the weak left side of the heart.
Right side heart failure manifests itself in symptoms that are slightly different. Along with shortness of breath, there is also a fair amount of swelling in the feet, ankles, liver and abdomen. The fluid accumulation in the liver and stomach results in loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting.
Acute heart failure is a condition where aggravated and severe symptoms of a heart failure are experienced. Sudden and strong tightening of the chest, a feeling of being crushed, chest pain that travels to the arms, shoulders, upper abdomen and even the jaws is what characterizes this kind of heart failure. Other symptoms of cardiac failure that is acute are cold perspiration, staring eyes, agony and in some cases incontinence. The condition of a patient may be such that onlookers may not know how to handle the patient given that he is uncomfortable about almost anything that is done for him.
Systolic heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to contact properly causing less amounts of blood to be pumped out. Diastolic heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to relax properly and therefore it does not completely fill up with blood. The consequences of diastolic heart failure are also therefore inadequate blood supply to the various parts of the body that cause symptoms similar to systolic heart failure.
Congestive heart failure has symptoms that are so different from the more well known symptoms of heart failure that it not diagnosed too easily. The main symptom of the condition is shortness of breath and cough, something that is easily associated with cold, flu, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is only when other symptoms like fluid retention and swelling occur do people start to take the symptoms more seriously.
Only a cardiologist can look at the symptoms and the results of various tests to unequivocally diagnose the specific kind of heart failure that someone is experiencing. Cardiac failure symptoms need to be studied very carefully for proper diagnosis and appropriate further medical treatment.