Right-Sided Heart Failure
Alternate Names : Congestive Heart Failure - Right
 See all Pictures & Images
Diagnosis & Tests
Your health care provider will obtain your medical history and will conduct a physical examination. The examination may reveal the following:
Examination of the chest with a stethoscope may reveal abnormal lung sounds or abnormal heart sounds.
You may be asked to undergo some diagnostic tests:
- An ECG may show signs of thickened heart muscle or arrhythmias.
- An echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) may show enlargement of the heart, heart abnormalities and decreased function. A Doppler study allows the health care provider to take pressure measurements in your heart and major blood vessels, which can help determine exactly what is wrong.
- A chest X-ray may show enlargement of the heart and lung abnormalities.
- Routine laboratory studies may be performed:
- Cardiac catheterization:
- During this test, a catheter is inserted through a vein into the right side of the heart and pressures there are measured.
- Sometimes the right ventricle and the fucntioning of the right-sided valves needs to be visualized, and dye is injected into the ventricle to obtain a ventriculography.
- Your left ventricle and your coronary arteries may also need to be studied, with a coronary angiography and left ventriculography, respectively.
|
