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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffComplications of heart disease include:
- Heart failure. One of the most common complications of heart disease is heart failure. Heart failure occurs when your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs. Over time, the heart can no longer keep up with the normal demands placed on it. The ventricles may become stiff and don't fill properly between beats. Also, the heart muscle may weaken, and the ventricles stretch (dilate) to the point that the heart can't pump blood efficiently throughout your body. Heart failure can result from many forms of heart disease, including heart defects, cardiovascular disease, valvular heart disease, heart infections or cardiomyopathy.
- Heart attack. Coronary artery disease can cause a heart attack. Heart attacks usually occur when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood through a coronary artery — a blood vessel that feeds blood to a part of the heart muscle. Interrupted blood flow to your heart can damage or destroy a part of the heart muscle.
- Stroke. Cardiovascular disease may cause an ischemic stroke, which happens when the arteries to your brain are narrowed or blocked and too little blood reaches your brain. A stroke is a medical emergency -brain tissue begins to die within just a few minutes of a stroke.
- Aneurysm. Cardiovascular disease can also cause aneurysms, a serious complication that can occur anywhere in your body. An aneurysm is a bulge in the wall of your artery. If an aneurysm bursts, you may face life-threatening internal bleeding. Although this is usually a sudden, catastrophic event, a slow leak is possible. If a blood clot within an aneurysm dislodges, it may block an artery at another point downstream.
- Peripheral artery disease. The same atherosclerosis that can lead to coronary artery disease can also lead to peripheral artery disease. When you develop peripheral artery disease (PAD), your extremities — usually your legs — don't receive enough blood flow to keep up with demand. This causes symptoms, most notably leg pain when walking (claudication).
- Sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is the sudden, unexpected loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness. Sudden cardiac arrest usually results from an electrical disturbance in your heart that disrupts its pumping action and causes blood to stop flowing to the rest of your body. Sudden cardiac arrest almost always occurs in the context of other underlying heart problems, particularly coronary artery disease. Sudden cardiac arrest is a medical emergency. If not treated immediately, it is fatal, resulting in sudden cardiac death.
References
- Nash IS. Clinical Practice Guidelines in Cardiovascular Disease. In: Fuster V, ed. et al. Hurst's The Heart. 12th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=5. Accessed Nov. 12, 2010.
- How the heart works. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hhw/hhw_all.html. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
- Arrhythmia. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/arr/arr_all.html. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
- Cardiomyopathy. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/cm/cm_all.html. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
- Heart valves. American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4598. Accessed Nov. 15, 2010.
- Congenital heart defects. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/chd/chd_all.html. Accessed Nov. 9, 2010.
- Endocarditis. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/endo/endo_all.html. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
- Sexton DJ. Epidemiology, risk factors and microbiology of infective endocarditis. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Nov. 9, 2010.
- Corey GR. Etiology of pericardial disease. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Nov. 9, 2010.
- Cooper LT. Natural history and therapy of myocarditis in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed Nov. 9, 2010.
- Lloyd-Jones D, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics: 2009 update. Circulation. 2009;119:e21.
- Chobanian AV, et al. The seventh report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. New England Journal of Medicine. 2003;289:2560.
- Rosendorff C, et al. Treatment of hypertension in the prevention and management of ischemic heart disease: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association Council for High Blood Pressure Research and the Councils on Clinical Cardiology and Epidemiology and Prevention. Circulation. 2007;115:2761.
- Executive summary of the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III). National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/cholesterol/atp3xsum.pdf. Accessed Nov. 15, 2010.
- Common tests for congenital heart defects. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/CongenitalHeartDefects/SymptomsDiagnosisofCongenitalHeartDefects/Common-Tests-for-Congenital-Heart-Defects_UCM_307412_Article.jsp. Accessed Nov. 12, 2010.
- Electrocardiogram. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/ekg/ekg_all.html. Accessed Nov. 9, 2010.
- Davis MM, et al. Influenza vaccination as secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease: A science advisory from the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology. Circulation. 2006;114:1549.
- Cardiac rehabilitation. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/rehab/rehab_all.html. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
- Aucott L, et al. Long term weight loss from lifestyle intervention benefits blood pressure: A systematic review. Hypertension. 2009;54:756.
- Friedewald VE, et al. The American Journal of Cardiology and Journal of Periodontology editors' consensus: Periodontitis and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Journal of Periodontology. 2009;80:1021.
- Natural medicines in the clinical management of hyperlipidemia. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. http://www.naturaldatabase.com. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
- Natural medicines in the clinical management of hypertension. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. http://www.naturaldatabase.com. Accessed Nov. 5, 2010.
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