Why can high blood pressure cause heart failure?

The article is professionally consulted by MSc Cao Thanh Tam - Cardiologist, Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.

Hypertension is one of the most common non-communicable diseases in the world today, but in the long run, this disease is a cause for concern with many serious complications including heart failure. Clinical practice shows that up to 90% of the causes of heart failure stem from hypertension.

1.1. High blood pressure According to the American Hypertension Society, high blood pressure is a condition in which blood flows through the arteries with greater pressure than normal. This condition usually goes on for a long time, it can be frequent or severe hypertensive crisis...
High blood pressure can occur at any age including children or adults. young.
Clinical research in Vietnam shows that the proportion of people with high blood pressure is increasing rapidly. Statistics of the Institute of Cardiology in 1960, the rate of hypertension was 1% in adults, after 30 years, in 1992, this number increased to 11%. Currently, according to the survey results in 2015, the rate of people with high blood pressure aged 18-69 years old is 18.9%, of which there are 23.1% men and 14.9% women. Vietnam has about 12 million people with high blood pressure, 1 in 4 people have high blood pressure.
High blood pressure if not properly treated and controlled will leave dangerous complications such as cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis, heart failure ...

1.2. Heart failure, the relationship between two diseases of high blood pressure and heart failure Heart failure is a medical condition that occurs when the heart is weakened and cannot ensure the function of pumping blood to the body normally.
Heart failure is the end result of cardiovascular diseases such as valvular disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease and hypertension. From medical records, up to 90% of heart failure causes are due to high blood pressure.
According to another study by Framingham, high blood pressure increases the risk of heart failure by 50-60% after many years of the disease and this risk increases 2 times in men and 3 times in women.
Hypertensive heart failure is a silent pathological process over a long period of time.
Relationship between hypertension and heart failure Blood pressure is the force of blood flow against the walls of blood vessels. When high blood pressure means increased pressure of the blood vessels on the artery walls, this makes the heart work harder to be able to overcome the resistance in the blood vessels. To meet this, the heart muscle must grow thick, the heart structure is changed.
These changes often occur in the main pumping chamber of the left heart, causing left ventricular thickening, mitral regurgitation. At this time, the patient appears to have symptoms of uncomfortable pain in the left chest, heaviness in the chest or fatigue when exerted.
When the structure of the heart is changed, the wall thickens, leading to a decrease in the elasticity of the blood vessel wall, and at the same time increasing the ability to accumulate cholesterol in the coronary arteries.
All these factors cause disturbances in cardiac function and cardiac conduction system disorders leading to frequent occurrence of heart attacks, risk of arrhythmias, myocardial infarction and heart failure .
All of these processes are the reasons why high blood pressure can cause heart failure.
In patients with heart failure, the heart's ability to contract and pump blood to the body is reduced, all vital activities of the body cause clinical manifestations such as: shortness of breath, fatigue with exertion , chest pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, decreased appetite, possibly swelling feet or ankles...

The early stages of patients with hypertensive heart failure are often unclear. To help with early diagnosis and timely treatment, the American Heart Association has given 5 early signs to support the diagnosis of hypertensive heart failure, abbreviated as FACES.
FACES is an abbreviation of English words including:
F : Fatigue means tired. A : Activity limitation means movement restriction. C: Congestion stagnation congestive. E : Edema or ankle swelling swelling or swelling in the ankle. S : Shortness of breath difficulty breathing. 5 The FACES sign is not used to definitively diagnose heart failure but is an important predictor of hypertensive patients at risk for heart failure.
Vinmec International General Hospital offers customers a hypertensive examination package to help check and screen early for risks related to heart failure.