Essay Example on Congestive Heart Failure

Cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary conditions are related to congestive heart failure. Various pathophysiologic processes lead to a patient experiencing shortness in breath, weight gain, abdominal swelling, and peripheral edema. These conditions are very severe in women than in men. It may develop with time as the symptoms present little by little. However, based on the case study, age, and gender are some of the factors leading to the severe symptoms she is experiencing. Based on historical health status, the symptoms are common to occur in women in case of congestive heart failure, which was evident in the case of the patient. These symptoms become apparent as a result of the heart problems she is has experienced before. This article, therefore, analyses the cases study on heart-related conditions leading to symptoms such as weight gain, and shortness in breath.

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Ventricular dysfunction is the primary cause of the symptoms; right ventricular failure leads to accumulation of abdominal fluids contributing to weight gain and swelling of body tissues while the failure of left ventricular causes shortness in breath (Hazinski et al. 2015). The patient experienced the symptoms as a result of heart-related conditions; heart dysfunction, which result from heart muscles pumping blood ineffectively to the critical body organs. It is one of the pathophysiologic processes that contributed to the symptoms experienced by the patient. For instance, shortness in breath is one of the symptoms related to a cardiovascular condition (Fisher et al. 2015). It is commonly referred to as dyspnea; the patient has experienced this symptom possibly because of pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a patient suffers from blood cloth from veins within the pelvic regions, legs, or the occurrence of the lodges in within the lungs.

The symptoms occurred because of heart dysfunction, fluids begging to build up, causing congestion in the lungs as well as other critical tissues in the body, causing shortness in breath. All these indicate that the patient is experiencing congestive heart failure, which is a critical condition associated with the heart. As a result of the condition, the body is forced to do other functions to make up for the impaired pumping of blood (Schols et 2018). The body holds a lot of water and salt in the blood hence increasing the amount of fluids, making it hard for the heart to pump normally. As a result of holding more fluids, the body responds by increasing weight to accommodate; for this reason, the older women experienced weight gain as one of the symptoms.

Abdominal swelling is also caused by the retention of excess fluid because of the congestion of heart failure.

Racial/ethnic divergences are associated with the psychological function of some individuals in the population. Racial/ethnic differences, for instance, in cardiovascular claims to be the reason behind people fail to understand and recognize some of the critical symptoms associated with it. Social-cultural and behavioral perspectives on race or ethnicity influence psychological functioning (Weiss et al. 2017).

Race and ethnicity determine the culture and behavior of different people; these variables, therefore, affect the mental operation, which eventually influences health status in a specific race. Sociocultural practices, for instance, affect psychological issues and the health of some in the general population. Most of the research findings identify that race is one of the leading factors associated with psychological function because of genetic variations and behavioral factors (Weiss et al. 2017). Black race, for instance, has significantly been associated with several psychological problems such as depression, stress, and anxiety (Weiss et al. 2017). It is because of sociocultural and environmental settings.

References

Fisher, S. A., Doree, C., Mathur, A., Taggart, D. P., & MartinRendon, E. (2016). Stem cell therapy for chronic ischaemic heart disease and congestive heart failure. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (12).

Hazinski, M. F., Nolan, J. P., Aickin, R., Bhanji, F., Billi, J. E., Callaway, C. W., ... & Gent, L. M. (2015). Part 1: executive summary: 2015 international consensus on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care science with treatment recommendations. Circulation, 132(16_suppl_1), S2-S39.

Schols, A. M., Stakenborg, J. P., Dinant, G. J., Willemsen, R. T., & Cals, J. W. (2018). Point-of-care testing in primary care patients with acute cardiopulmonary symptoms: a systematic review. Family practice, 35(1), 4-12.

Weiss, N. H., Johnson, C. D., Contractor, A., Peasant, C., Swan, S. C., & Sullivan, T. P. (2017). Racial/ethnic differences moderate associations of coping strategies and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom clusters among women experiencing partner violence: a multigroup path analysis. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 30(3), 347-363.