CHF, unspecified

My mother came back from hospital and one diagnosis was: Cardiac Heart Failure, unspecified. What it means exactly? Doctor didn't write her any CHF related drugs AFAIK.

[jrbon]

CHF means that the heart it is not able to supply the amount of blood that the body needs.

CHF it is not a disease but a number of symptoms that can be produced for different diseases, therefore you can see drugs that are not specific for CHF but that can contribute to alleviate the symptoms, eg: diuretics.

Jesus

[101help]

Depending on the cause of CHF there are a few basic groups of medications that could be prescribed, depending on the specific heart condition are digitalis medicines, diuretics, Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBS) and nitrate or hydralazine. Digitalis medicines improve circulation by increasing the force of the heart’s contractions. Diuretics are prescribed to patients whose bodies retain fluid. ACE inhibitors were originally developed to treat high blood pressure by reducing the pressure in the blood vessels. This decreases the strain on the heart while it is trying to pump blood through the vessels, improves chances of survival for heart failure patients and slows or stops the loss of heart pumping activity. Similarly, the ARBS may also improve survival for heart failure patients and decrease or eliminate the loss of heart pumping activity. Where ACE inhibitors or ARBS cannot be taken, nitrate or hydralazine is prescribed instead for improving blood flow by causing the blood vessels to relax.