Increased Risk Of Pulmonary Edema With Heart Disease!

Are you suffering with any heart disease? Then you can be at increased risk of developing pulmonary edema.

Pulmonary edema is usually associated with heart problem and involves accumulation of fluid and swelling in your lungs.

Human lungs contain large number of tiny elastic air sacs, which normally exchange gases involved in respiration without any problem. But, sometimes, as the pressure in your blood vessels is increased, your lungs are forced to pump certain kind of fluid into these air sacs and prevent them from exchanging oxygen, which results in pulmonary edema.

Most of the cases involving heart disease are mainly due to pulmonary edema. But, the accumulation of fluid can be due to many other reasons such as pneumonia, exposure of your blood vessels to certain toxins and medications and also due to excessive exercising or living at extreme elevations.

Depending up on the reason to develop pulmonary edema, the signs and symptoms to identify the problem usually appear suddenly or it can also be developed gradually over weeks or months.

You can experience these manifestations if the attack is sudden:

  • One can experience difficulty in breathing or extreme shortness of breath.
  • A feeling of suffocation or drowning and also wheezing for breath.
  • You can feel more anxiousness, restlessness and also sense of uneasiness.
  • If the accumulation of fluid is severe, then you can cough up with yellow, green frothy sputum that can be sometimes plunging with blood.
  • You can also experience excessive sweating.
  • If pulmonary edema is caused by coronary artery disease, then it can lead to chest pain.

Signs of pulmonary edema when symptoms develop gradually:

  • If you are lying flat, opposed to sitting up, then you can experience difficulty in breathing.
  • Repeatedly awakening at nights due to a feeling of shortness of breath.
  • Occurrence of more shortness of breath than the usual, when you are physically active.
  • When pulmonary edema is developed as a result of congestive heart failure, a condition in which your heart can pump very little blood in order to meet your body’s need, then you can put on a significant body weight. This weight gain is mainly due to accumulation of fluid especially in your legs.

Whenever you observe these signs of disease, immediately consult your doctor without any delay. If you are able to receive prompt treatment at right time, then it can help you in avoiding complications involved in pulmonary edema.