Why there are pains in the heart extending to the lower extremities

Not always the pain that occurs in the region of the heart can make a person think about his state of health and visit the appropriate specialist. However, if the pain in the heart begins to radiate to the legs, back or other limbs, this is often very alarming for the patient, and a visit to a cardiologist becomes an inevitable event. What can such symptoms say and what kind of heart disease accompanies this ailment.

Causes of pain in the heart, radiating to the lower extremities

Most often, pain in the legs is an accompaniment of heart failure. It is the violation of blood circulation that makes the lower limbs react to the insufficient amount of blood circulating in them.

Stagnation of venous blood is the first indicator of heart failure. The sensation of numbness in the lower extremities is a direct result of this congestion.

• ischemic heart disease (CHD);
• angina;
• arrhythmia;

• myocardial infarction;
• myocarditis;
• myocardiopathy;
• myocardiostrophy;
• tumor formations;
• heart injury.

Against the background of any of these heart diseases, heart failure can develop, which can subsequently affect the lower extremities in the form of malaise.

Symptoms and signs of heart failure with leg pain

The symptomatology of the disease may have certain differences in patients of different ages and types of activity, the neglect of the underlying disease, the state of blood vessels and the heart. It is also customary to separate left ventricular and right ventricular heart failure.

In patients with increased body weight, in whom heart failure manifests itself several times more often, swelling can spread to the hips, buttocks, and even the sacrum.

• low temperature in the lower and upper limbs;
• hyperpigmentation appears on the skin of the legs;
• dryness and depletion of the skin;
• the skin on the legs becomes bluish;

• joint pain;
• weakness and lack of muscle tone.

Complications in the work of the right ventricle in heart failure are characterized by disruption of the organs of the bronchopulmonary system, difficulty in breathing and severe suffocating cough.

1. Pain in the right hypochondrium, resulting from an increase in the size of the liver.
2. Cyanosis (blue) of the nasolabial triangle as a result of stagnation of blood with low oxygen content.
3. Ascites is an accumulation of ascitic fluid in the abdominal cavity, which causes an increase in the abdomen and tension of the anterior abdominal wall.
4. Edema of the lungs and other organs of the bronchopulmonary system.
5. Hydrothorax - the formation of a certain amount of fluid in the pleural cavity of the heart.
6. cardiac asthma.
7. Low daily diuresis, stagnation of fluid in the body that did not come out with urine.

If you do not turn to a specialist in time, over time, heart pain that appears in the lower extremities can deprive a person of the ability to endure any physical activity and lead to death.

Stages of development of left ventricular failure

The stages of heart failure in the pathology of the left ventricle are conditionally divided into three stages, which are characterized by the degree of manifestation of the disease:

1. First stage. The manifestation of symptoms, including numbness and swelling of the lower extremities, only during physical exertion.
2. Second stage. Cyanosis, edema and difficulty breathing, even at rest.
3. Third or terminal stage. It is characterized by irreversible consequences in the systems of vital organs.

Diagnosis of the disease

When compiling a medical history, it is not difficult to identify left ventricular blood insufficiency.

• an electrocardiogram of the heart, aimed at identifying a patient with coronary heart disease or arrhythmia;
• ECHO (echocardiogram) - determines the distance of the ventricles of the heart, the coordination and intensity of their work;
• radiography, to accurately determine the area in which blood stagnation has formed.

After carrying out diagnostic procedures, the cardiologist can prescribe the necessary measures for the treatment of heart failure.

Treatment of left-sided heart failure

There are several forms of treatment for left-sided heart failure.

• diuretics, necessary to alleviate the condition of the kidneys by removing excess fluid from the body through urine;
• ACE inhibitors that solve problems with blood pressure disorders and prevent the process of expansion of the heart cavities;
• beta-blockers, which reduce the number of heartbeats, resulting in a decrease in the overall load on the main organ;
• nitrates, with the help of which vasodilation and a decrease in signs of heart failure occur;
• glycosides that stimulate the normal ejection of blood into the aorta.

In the treatment of this form of the disease, the root cause of its development is necessarily taken into account:

1. Myocardial infarction. To eliminate heart failure in this case, it is necessary to restore blood flow through the coronary artery. This can be done by placing a special spring that will increase the diameter of the artery (stenting). Preliminary it is necessary to carry out coronary angiography and examine the condition of the artery.
2. Arrhythmia. It can be eliminated with the help of the complex use of drugs, but if they are ineffective, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is used, with the help of which excess foci of excitation of the heart impulse are removed by cauterization.
3. Damage to the heart valves. It is treated only with the help of radical surgical intervention. Valves are prosthetized using special metal structures, or donor samples (for example, porcine) are used.
4. Cardiomyopathy. In this case, an effective method of treatment is the transplantation of a donor organ.

• weight control (obesity or dystrophy can provoke the formation of hypertension or hypotension);
• limit the amount of salt, water and fats in food to eliminate fluid stagnation in the body;
• avoid physical and emotional stress;
• eliminate bad habits (alcohol, tobacco, certain drugs, drugs).

Treatment of the acute form of the disease is carried out exclusively in a hospital setting. All drugs are administered intravenously to the patient.

With pulmonary edema, it is possible to place the patient under an artificial lung ventilation system, by tracheal intonation.

With myocardial damage, the patient can be connected to an artificial heart system. This is a temporary measure that helps the patient's heart to pump blood using a special pump. The device can be connected via catheters, or implanted into the chest until the myocardial function is restored.