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Back to Diseases
Heart
Failure
How is heart failure diagnosed?
If you have symptoms of heart failure, your doctor will want
to listen to your heart for signs of trouble. A quick listen
with a stethoscope can show whether your lungs are filled with
fluid. Tests of your blood and urine can also show signs of
fluid imbalances. To be really confident, your doctor may order
an echocardiogram to determine if you have an enlarged heart
and look at how it's pumping. A chest x-ray may be useful to
see whether you have fluid buildup in your lungs, or you may
need to have an electrocardiogram (EKG) to track your heartbeats.
In certain cases, your doctor may also conduct a radionuclide
ventriculography, a test that uses a harmless radioactive substance
to track the flow of blood through your body. Your doctor might
also ask you to take a stress test to see how your heart handles
the stress of exercise.
