is there a difference between a stiff heart muscle and heart failure?

Answer 1

This will help you out:
Alternative names
Amyloidosis - cardiac; Primary cardiac amyloidosis - AL type; Secondary cardiac amyloidosis - AA type; Stiff heart syndrome; Senile amyloidosis; Amyloidosis - senile

Definition

Cardiac amyloidosis is a disorder caused by deposits of an abnormal protein in the heart tissue, which make it hard for the heart to work properly.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Amyloidosis is the accumulation of clumps of proteins called amyloids in body tissues and organs. The proteins slowly replace normal tissue. There are many forms of amyloidosis.

Cardiac amyloidosis usually occurs during primary amyloidosis, also called AL type amyloidosis. Primary amyloidosis is usually seen in persons with multiple myeloma, a type of cancer.

Cardiac amyloidosis, also called "stiff heart syndrome," occurs when amyloid deposits take the place of normal heart muscle. It is the most typical type of restrictive cardiomyopathy. Patients with cardiac amyloidosis may have changes in the way electrical signals move through the heart. This is called a conduction disturbance.

Secondary amyloidosis, also called AA type, rarely affects the heart. However, a subtype of secondary amyloidosis called senile amyloidosis involves the heart and blood vessels. Senile amyloidosis is caused by overproduction of a protein different from both the AA and AL types. Senile cardiac amyloidosis is becoming more common as the average age of the population increases.


Heart failure is a clinical syndrome resulting from a cardiac disease which compromises ventricular systolic or diastolic function or both. Heart failure results when the heart is unable to generate a cardiac output sufficient to meet the demands of the body without unduly increasing diastolic pressure. Heart failure may be manifested by symptoms of poor tissue perfusion alone (e.g., fatigue, poor exercise tolerance, confusion) or by both symptoms of poor tissue perfusion and congestion of vascular beds (e.g., dyspnea, chest rales, pleural effusion, pulmonary edema, distended neck veins, congested liver, peripheral edema).

Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is a clinical syndrome caused by heart disease, characterized by breathlessness and abnormal sodium and water retention, and resulting in edema. This term is used when there is congestion of pulmonary or systemic vascular beds.

Hope answered your question.

Answer 2

No. the words 'heart failure' is simply a term to describe that the heart is not functioning and performing as well as it should. the fact that the heart is stiff is a result of whichever disease a person has that caused the heart failure. By the way my heart is stiff as a result of heart failure due to cardiomyopathy

Answer 3

Education is good, because it teaches you how to learn, how to discipline your mind. Knowledge for a Christian is knowing the word, knowing your God, His nature, His will, His outlook on things. Wisdom is looking at things from God's perspective and putting them into action. Knowledge is great, but too much of it can puff you up if you don't counteract it with fruit of the Spirit. Ever know a person who's very knowledgeable, but has no temperance and no love? Their knowledge is almost useless in the long run. But wisdom? You find that and your soul shall live, because when you find wisdom, you find the way God Himself looks at a situation. Proverbs 3: By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.