What is heart failure?

Heart failure occurs when damage to the heart causes an impairment in its pumping action, meaning less blood is pumped around the body. This can lead to fatigue and breathlessness when active or at rest.

Heart failure is a serious condition and is the consequence of many heart conditions, from those that affect the heart muscle to those that affect the valves and the conducting tissue.

To diagnose heart failure, the symptoms and abnormalities detected by the physician are put together with the findings from tests that measure the function of the heart, such as echocardiography (ultrasound), cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and cardiac catheterisation.

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