How does cad cause heart failure

Home » Heart failure causes and other common medical conditions » Coronary artery disease. Enter your details below and the details of the person you'd like to send this page to and we'll email them the link. If your heart failure is caused by coronary heart disease, one or more of your coronary arteries arteries that supply blood to your heart muscle have narrowed due to the build-up of a cholesterol containing mass plaque inside the artery wall.

This narrowing of your artery reduces the amount of oxygen and nourishment that is able to reach your heart muscle, causing angina chest pain often during exercise. This lack of oxygen and nutrients makes the muscle work harder in order to pump blood around your body.

Coronary artery disease can be delayed, and even prevented, by lifestyle and medical approaches. Return to Common heart conditions.

These narrated animations explain how a healthy heart works, what happens to it in heart failure and how various treatments work to improve your health. Section Navigation.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. Close Coronary artery disease is caused by plaque buildup in the wall of the arteries that supply blood to the heart called coronary arteries. Heart tests and what they do. Echocardiogram Uses ultrasound special sound wave to create a picture of the heart. Exercise stress test Measures your heart rate while you walk on a treadmill. This helps to determine how well your heart is working when it has to pump more blood.

Chest X-ray Uses x-rays to create a picture of the heart, lungs, and other organs in the chest. Cardiac catheterization Checks the inside of your arteries for blockage by inserting a thin, flexible tube through an artery in the groin, arm, or neck to reach the heart. Coronary angiogram Monitors blockage and flow of blood through the coronary arteries.

Uses X-rays to detect dye injected via cardiac catheterization. Coronary artery calcium scan A computed tomography CT scan that looks in the coronary arteries for calcium buildup and plaque. Get Email Updates. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. And they may have other symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and nausea. If you think you're having a heart attack, immediately call or your local emergency number.

If you don't have access to emergency medical services, have someone drive you to the nearest hospital. Drive yourself only as a last option. If you have risk factors for coronary artery disease — such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, tobacco use, diabetes, obesity a strong family history of heart disease — talk to your doctor. Your doctor may want to test you for coronary artery disease, especially if you have signs or symptoms of narrowed arteries. If you have too many cholesterol particles in your blood, cholesterol may accumulate on your artery walls.

Eventually, deposits called plaques may form. The deposits may narrow — or block — your arteries. These plaques can also burst, causing a blood clot to form. Coronary artery disease is thought to begin with damage or injury to the inner layer of a coronary artery, sometimes as early as childhood. The damage may be caused by various factors, including:.

Once the inner wall of an artery is damaged, fatty deposits plaque made of cholesterol and other cellular waste products tend to collect at the site of injury. This process is called atherosclerosis. If the plaque surface breaks or ruptures, blood cells called platelets clump together at the site to try to repair the artery. This clump can block the artery, leading to a heart attack. Risk factors often occur together and one may trigger another. For instance, obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

When grouped together, certain risk factors make you even more likely to develop coronary artery disease. For example, metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes high blood pressure; high triglycerides; low HDL , or "good," cholesterol; high insulin levels and excess body fat around the waist — increases the risk of coronary artery disease.

Sometimes coronary artery disease develops without any classic risk factors. Researchers are studying other possible risk factors, including:.

The same lifestyle habits used to help treat coronary artery disease can also help prevent it. A healthy lifestyle can help keep your arteries strong and clear of plaque. To improve your heart health, follow these tips:. Coronary artery disease care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Coronary artery disease develops when the major blood vessels that supply your heart become damaged or diseased.

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