Heart failure explained

What is heart failure?

When your heart struggles to pump enough blood to meet your body's needs, it's called heart failure. This doesn't mean your heart has stopped or is about to stop—it means the pumping action has weakened or stiffened, making everyday activities more difficult.

There are two reasons heart failure occurs:

Weak heart — heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, HFrEF — when the heart muscle becomes too weak to squeeze strongly.
Stiff heart — heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, HFpEF — when the heart becomes too stiff to fill properly.

Both prevent the heart from pumping blood effectively.

There are about 50 per cent in each group at present, with the HFpEF group becoming more common.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms like breathlessness — especially during activities that once felt easy — can limit quality of life and lead to hospital admissions. But with the right treatment and support, many people with heart failure live active, fulfilling lives.

How is it treated?

While effective treatments exist for HFrEF, including medications and specialised pacemakers, HFpEF has proven more challenging to treat. That's why our research is so vital.

Video: Dr Shane Nanayakkara explaining heart failure (1min, 48sec)

What is the Baker Institute doing about heart failure?

We're leading the way in understanding and treating heart failure, particularly the forms that have been hardest to address.

Our Heart Failure Research laboratory is committed to understanding more about HFpEF. By carefully studying patient's heart function and blood pressure responses during exercise, they are able to confirm the presence of HFpEF. These exercise assessments are conducted using a range of techniques, including cardiac ultrasound and heart catheterisation, for which the group is internationally recognised.

From these studies, they have developed models of the disease that allow them to better understand the condition and this has led to the development of novel treatments that are currently under clinical trial.

Our Metabolomics laboratory has developed a plasmalogen-rich dietary supplement that halts heart failure progression in animal models by increasing blood plasmalogen levels and restoring damaged cardiac cells. This represents a potential breakthrough for people living with heart failure — moving from managing symptoms to actually restoring heart function.

Visit the Heart Foundation for more information on chronic heart failure

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Disclaimer
While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of this material, the information is provided on the basis that persons undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content. In particular, readers should seek independent professional medical advice from their general practitioner or specialist in relation to their own individual circumstance or condition before making any decisions based on this information. The material also includes summarised guidelines or recommendations based on information provided by third parties. The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute disclaims to the extent permitted by law, all liability including negligence for claims of losses, expenses, damages and costs that the reader may incur (or suffer) from acting on or refraining from action as a result of all information in these materials.