Assignment task:
H.J. presented to the ER late one evening complaining of a "racing heartbeat." She is an overweight, 69-year-old white female, who has been experiencing increasing shortness of breath during the past two months and marked swelling of the ankles and feet during the past three weeks. She feels very weak and tired most of the time and has recently been waking up in the middle of the night with severe breathing problems. She has been sleeping with several pillows to keep herself propped up. Five years ago, she suffered a transmural (i.e., through the entire thickness of the ventricular wall), anterior wall (i.e., left ventricle) myocardial infarction. She received two-vessel coronary artery bypass surgery 41⁄2 years ago for obstructions in the left anterior descending and left circumflex coronary arteries. Her family history is positive for atherosclerosis as her father died from a heart attack and her mother had several CVAs. She had been a three pack per day smoker for 30 years but quit smoking after her heart attack. She uses alcohol infrequently. She has a nine-year history of hypercholesterolemia. She is allergic to nuts, shellfish, strawberries, and hydralazine. Her medical history also includes diagnoses of osteoarthritis and gout. Her current medications include celecoxib, allopurinol, atorvastatin, and daily aspirin and clopidogrel. The patient is admitted to the hospital for a thorough examination.
Questions:
Question 1: What is heart failure?
Question 2: What are the key risk factors for heart attack in the given scenario?
Question 3: Differentiate left and right sided heart failure.