Heart Disease: Diagnosing Heart Failure
To diagnose heart failure,
your doctor will perform a physical examination and also check for other risk
factors such as high blood pressure. The
Cleveland Clinic and the
American Heart Association state that
your doctor may also use one or more of the tools or procedures below to
diagnose your heart failure.
Electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG)
An electrocardiogram is a
device used to record the electrical activity of the heart on graph paper. An
EKG (or ECG) is used to diagnose poor blood flow to the heart, diagnose heart
chamber enlargement and abnormal electrical conduction, assess your heart
rhythm, and diagnose a heart attack.
Echocardiogram (Echo)
An echocardiogram is a
graphic outline of your heart's movement, which uses ultrasounds to provide
pictures of your heart's valves and chambers and help the sonographer evaluate
the pumping action of the heart. The next step may be a reading called the
ejection
fraction, which measures how much blood the heart's left
ventricle pumps out with each contraction.
B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) Blood Test
BNP is a substance
secreted from the ventricles or lower chambers of the heart in response to
changes in pressure that occur when heart failure develops and worsens. The
level of BNP increases when heart failure symptoms worsen, and decreases when
the condition is stable.
Other procedures that may
be conducted include:
- A radionuclide
ventriculography or multiple-gated acquisition scanning
- Chest X-rays
- An angiography
- An exercise stress test
