• Anxiety
• Cough
• Difficulty breathing
• Excessive sweating
• Feeling of "air hunger" or "drowning" (if this occurs suddenly, awakening you from sleep and causing you to sit up and catch your breath, it's called "paroxysmal noctural dyspnea")
• Grunting or gurgling sounds with breathing
• Pale skin
• Restlessness
• Shortness of breath
• Shortness of breath when lying down (orthopnea) -- you may need to sleep with your head propped up or use extra pillows
• Wheezing

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this condition:

• Coughing up blood or bloody froth
• Decrease in level of alertness (consciousness)
• Inability to speak in full sentences
• Nasal flaring

The health care provider will perform a physical exam and use a stethoscope to listen to the lungs and heart. The following may be detected:

• Crackles in the lungs, called rales
• Abnormal heart sounds
• Increased heart rate (tachycardia)
• Pale or blue skin color (pallor or cyanosis)
• Rapid breathing (tachypnea)

Possible tests include:

• Complete blood count (CBC) to check for anemia and reduced red cell count
• Other blood tests to measure blood chemistries and kidney function
• Blood oxygen levels (oximetry or arterial blood gases) -- low in patients with pulmonary edema
• Chest x-ray may reveal fluid in or around the lung space or an enlarged heart
• Electrocardiogram (ECG) to detect abnormal heart rhythm or evidence of a heart attack
• Ultrasound of the heart (echocardiogram) to see if there is a weak heart muscle, leaky or narrow heart valves, or fluid surrounding the heart