Heart Failure | Congestive Heart Failure

Signs and symptoms of heart failure can include:

• Shortness of breath
• Trouble breathing when lying down
• Weight gain
• Swelling in the feet, legs, ankles or stomach
• Feeling tired and rundown

Your doctor or healthcare provider will ask for your medical history, family history and symptoms. Your doctors also will check your blood pressure, listen to your heart and lungs, and check your weight. You may also have the following screenings:

• Blood tests

• Chest X-rays

• EKG or ECG

• Echocardiogram

• Exercise stress test

• Cardiac catheterization

Heart failure can be managed with medicine and a healthy lifestyle. If you are experiencing heart failure symptoms, talk to a primary care physician or heart specialist about:

• Medication

• Daily physical activity

• Eat the right amount of salt

• Weigh yourself every day

• Keep track of symptoms daily to report back to your doctor

People with advanced heart or lung failure may require mechanical circulatory support (MCS) to replace normal heart and lung functions. Often, these devices are implanted temporarily during an emergency surgical procedure following a heart event. Or, you doctor may recommend a MCS device as a long-term solution for advanced heart or lung failure.

MaineHealth employs the latest equipment and surgical therapies for cardiogenic shock and heart failure including mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), temporary percutaneous ventricular assist devices to support both the right and left ventricles (VAD), durable implantable left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and more.

MaineHealth partners with regional heart transplant centers including Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Tufts Medical Center in Boston to support our patients who require heart transplant surgery. A multidisciplinary team of cardiologists, surgeons and specially trained nurses works treats patients who are waiting for, or have already received, a heart transplant.

 

During a myocardial biopsy procedure, your doctor will use a catheter to obtain a small piece of heart muscle tissue that can be sent to a laboratory for analysis. Myocardial biopsy is used to:

- Evaluate or confirm the presence of rejection after heart transplant
- Diagnose myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle)

MaineHealth palliative care services are designed to help patients with serious illnesses live their lives as fully as possible. Treatment focuses on 

• Preventing suffering by providing care to keep you comfortable
• Managing symptoms of serious illness
• Coordinating communication between many caregivers