Heart failure is divided into 4 stages.
Check if you fall into any of the early stages:
Stage A: (Patients at high risk for heart failure)
Do you have one or more of the following existing medical conditons?
Hypertension
Diabetes Mellitus
Lupus
High cholesterol
Alcohol Abuse
Obesity
Atherosclerotic disease of any kind
Covid virus infection (new)
Family History of Cardiomyopathy
Toxic Drugs that can affect the heart function
etc.
If so, you are in stage A. In this stage, your heart has no structural abnormality and you have no symptoms. Treatment and management to modify the risks are essential here.
Stage B: (Patients with structural heart problems, usually caused by the conditions in stage A. Still in this stage, you will have no symptoms but the heart is feeling the impacts of the risk factors.
How do you know if you are in stage B? Get tested!!
Your Doctor has to do some tests such as echocardiogram to see the structure of your heart.
Notice that because patient have no symptoms in stage A and B, they can easily pass through these stages without knowing into stage C.
Key:
If stage A is managed properly, then stage B may be averted and so on.
Call our office or your doctor's office for further evaluation if you are at risk.
Remember, heart failure stages is NOT heart failure classes. We will discuss classes when we talk about stages C and D next time.
Stay safe and in good health.
Click here to learn more about Heart Failure Stages!
Dr. Ezeugwu
