In left-sided heart failure, the left side of the heart is weakened and results in reduced ability for the heart to pump blood into the body. In right-sided heart failure, the right side of the heart is weakened and results in fluid in your veins, causing swelling in the legs, ankles, and liver.
The right side of your heart receives oxygen-poor blood from your veins and pumps it to your lungs, where the blood picks up oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide. The left side of your heart receives oxygen-rich blood from your lungs and pumps it through your arteries to the rest of your body.
Left-sided heart failure is the main cause of right-sided heart failure. That's because left-sided heart failure can cause blood to build up on the left side of your heart. The build-up of blood raises the pressure in the blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to your lungs.
Systolic Versus Diastolic Heart Failure
Both systolic and diastolic heart failure affect the left ventricle. In systolic heart failure, the heart muscle is weak, and the ventricle can't contract normally. With diastolic heart failure, the heart muscle is stiff, and the left ventricle can't relax normally.
With systolic heart failure, your heart isn't contracting well during heartbeats. While diastolic heart failure, by contrast, is when your heart can't relax normally between beats. The differences don't stop there — and the differences are important.
Issues with the left ventricle cause left-sided heart failure. Left-sided heart failure can be systolic or diastolic. Systolic heart failure occurs during a heartbeat and relates to the pumping function, whereas diastolic heart failure occurs between heartbeats and is due to an issue with the relaxing function.
Left-sided heart failure occurs when the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping power source, is gradually weakened. When this occurs, the heart is unable to pump oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the heart's left atrium, into the left ventricle and on through the body and the heart has to work harder.
In right-sided heart failure, the heart's right ventricle is too weak to pump enough blood to the lungs. As blood builds up in the veins, fluid gets pushed out into the tissues in the body. Right-sided heart failure symptoms include swelling and shortness of breath.
Cor pulmonale is a condition that causes the right side of the heart to fail. Long-term high blood pressure in the arteries of the lung and right ventricle of the heart can lead to cor pulmonale.
Systolic failure: The left ventricle loses its ability to contract normally. The heart can't pump with enough force to push enough blood into circulation. This is also known as heart failure with reduced ejection, or HFrEF.
Heart failure usually begins with the lower left heart chamber, called the left ventricle. This is the heart's main pumping chamber. But heart failure also can affect the right side. The lower right heart chamber is called the right ventricle.
When the left side is not pumping correctly, blood backs up in the blood vessels of the lungs — pulmonary edema. As blood backs up in the lungs, pressure in the veins of the lungs increases. Fluids within the lungs are pushed into breathing spaces, interrupting the normal flow of oxygen.
Cardiogenic pulmonary edema is caused by increased pressures in the heart. It's usually a result of heart failure. When a diseased or overworked left lower heart chamber (left ventricle) can't pump out enough of the blood it gets from the lungs, pressures in the heart go up.
Right heart failure is most commonly a result of left ventricular failure via volume and pressure overload. Clinically, patients will present with signs and symptoms of chest discomfort, breathlessness, palpitations, and body swelling.
Left-sided heart failure is the most common type. Right-sided heart failure: Here the right ventricle of the heart is too weak to pump enough blood to the lungs. This causes blood to build up in the veins (the blood vessels that carry blood from the organs and tissue back to the heart).
Stage 2 of Congestive Heart Failure
Stage two of congestive heart failure will produce symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, or heart palpitations after you participate in physical activity.
The symptoms of left-sided heart failure are the generally the same for heart failure broadly and include: Shortness of breath. Difficulty breathing when lying down. Weight gain with swelling in the feet, legs, ankles.
On physical exam, the most common signs encountered are: Rales on lung auscultation indicative of pulmonary edema. Decreased breath sounds on lung auscultation suggestive of pleural effusion. S3 gallop on heart auscultation indicative of elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure.
Diastolic heart failure may correlate better with prognosis for symptoms and survival than traditional indices of systolic function.
Over the years, research has found that both numbers are equally important in monitoring heart health. However, most studies show a greater risk of stroke and heart disease related to higher systolic pressures compared with elevated diastolic pressures.
The left side of the heart is crucial for normal heart function and is usually where heart failure begins.