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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffCardiogenic symptoms include:
- Rapid breathing
- Severe shortness of breath
- Sudden, rapid heartbeat (tachycardia)
- Confusion
- Loss of consciousness or fainting
- Weak pulse
- Sweating
- Pale skin
- Cold hands or feet
- Urinating less than normal or not at all
Symptoms of a heart attack
Because cardiogenic shock usually occurs in people who are having a severe heart attack, it's important to know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. These include:
- Pressure, fullness or a squeezing pain in the center of your chest that lasts for more than a few minutes
- Pain extending beyond your chest to your shoulder, arm, back, or even to your teeth and jaw
- Increasing episodes of chest pain
- Prolonged pain in the upper abdomen
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Impending sense of doom
- Fainting
- Nausea and vomiting
If you seek medical attention quickly when having these signs or symptoms, you can decrease the chance that you'll develop cardiogenic shock.
When to see a doctor
Getting heart attack treatment quickly improves your chance of survival and minimizes damage to your heart. Don't "tough out" these symptoms for more than five minutes. Call 911 or other emergency medical services for help. If you don't have access to emergency medical services, have someone drive you to the nearest hospital.
- Cardiogenic shock. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/shock/shock_what.html. Accessed July 27, 2011.
- Reynolds HR, et al. Cardiogenic shock: Current concepts and improving outcomes. Circulation. 2008;117:686.
- Goldberg RJ, et al. Thirty-year trends (1975 to 2005) in the magnitude of, management of, and hospital death rates associated with cardiogenic shock in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Circulation. 2009;119:1211.
- Menon V, et al. Prognosis and treatment of cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 27, 2011.
- Hochman JS, et al. Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of cardiogenic shock. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 27, 2011.
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