Symptoms and Signs
The symptoms and signs of hypertensive heart disease will depend on whether or not it is accompanied by heart failure. In the absence of heart failure, hypertension, with or without enlargement of the heart (left ventricular hypertrophy) is usually symptomless. Symptoms and signs of chronic heart failure can include:
- Fatigue
- Irregular pulse or palpitations
- Swelling of feet and ankles
- Weight gain
- Nausea
- Shortness of breath
- Difficulty sleeping flat in bed (orthopnea)
- Bloating and abdominal pain
- Greater need to urinate at night
- Altered mentation (in severe cases)
- An enlarged heart (cardiomegaly)
Patients can present acutely with heart failure and pulmonary edema due to sudden failure of pump function of the heart. Acute heart failure can be precipitated by a variety of causes including myocardial ischemia, marked increases in blood pressure, or cardiac dysrhythmias, especially atrial fibrillation. Alternatively heart failure can develop insidiously over time.
Read more about this topic: Hypertensive Heart Disease
Famous quotes containing the words symptoms and, symptoms and/or signs:
“Social movements are at once the symptoms and the instruments of progress. Ignore them and statesmanship is irrelevant; fail to use them and it is weak.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn’t enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“The family is in flux, and signs of trouble are widespread. Expectations remain high. But realities are disturbing.”
—Robert Neelly Bellah (20th century)