Possible complications of heart disease include heart failure, heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, peripheral artery disease, and atrial fibrillation.

“Heart disease” is an umbrella term that covers many conditions related to heart health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

Heart disease can affect your heart muscle, heart valves, coronary arteries, or heart rhythm. Each of these components plays an important part in your overall heart health.

Lifestyle changes, medications, and surgical procedures can relieve many symptoms and help slow the progression of the disease. If left untreated, heart disease can cause many potentially fatal complications.

This article reviews the most common complications of heart disease.

Heart failure happens when your heart cannot pump enough blood throughout your body.

Your heart muscle is very strong, but over time it can begin to have trouble doing its job. When this happens, your heart starts to compensate by beating faster, building up more muscle, or stretching to accommodate more blood.

These methods of compensating can eventually impair your heart’s function and result in heart failure. Symptoms include shortness of breath, dizziness, confusion, and fluid buildup in your body, which causes edema (swelling).

A heart attack happens when your coronary arteries narrow so much that they cut off blood supply to your heart. Often, this is the result of atherosclerosis (cholesterol buildup in your arteries).

If a piece of the cholesterol breaks off, it can block the blood vessel, depriving your heart cells of oxygen. As a result, the cells begin to die.

Common symptoms include shortness of breath and severe chest pain that may radiate to your back, jaw, or left arm.

Sex-specific differences

It’s worth noting that females may experience different symptoms of heart attack than males because heart disease may affect different parts of the heart.

For example, females most commonly develop heart disease in the smaller arteries that branch off the heart’s major arteries (also known as the coronary arteries). Symptoms may include nausea, shortness of breath, vomiting, and stomach pain.

Heart disease in males is more likely to affect or block the coronary arteries. This can cause the symptoms that people more commonly associate with heart disease, such as crushing chest pain and chest tightness or pressure, particularly during stress or physical activity.

When your heart isn’t working effectively, blood clots are more likely to form in your blood vessels. A stroke happens when one of these clots lodges in a blood vessel in your brain and cuts off blood flow. This is called an ischemic stroke. Symptoms include:

  • numbness on one side of your body
  • confusion
  • trouble speaking
  • loss of balance or coordination

If you don’t receive treatment quickly enough during a stroke, too many brain cells may die in important areas of your brain that control speech, strength, memory, and other functions. If you survive a stroke, these elements of brain function may never return or may take time and rehabilitation to recover.

A pulmonary embolism is similar to a stroke but involves a blocked blood vessel in your lungs instead of your brain.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain when breathing, and bluish skin. Because your body is quickly deprived of oxygen, a pulmonary embolism can turn deadly and is an emergency.

Cardiac arrest happens when your heart suddenly stops beating. It’s usually caused by an electrical disturbance in your heart. Arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) caused by heart disease can lead to cardiac arrest. This will result in death if not treated immediately.

Symptoms of cardiac arrest include feelings of dizziness, shortness of breath, fatigue, heart palpitations, and nausea.

If cardiac arrest happens, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and early defibrillation are key to increasing chances of survival.

The same narrowing that happens in coronary artery disease can happen in the arteries that supply blood to your arms and legs.

The main symptom of PAD is severe leg pain when walking.

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is a heart condition that is rarely deadly. It causes the upper chambers of your heart to beat irregularly or “quiver” instead of beating strongly. AFib may cause you to experience an irregular heartbeat and a feeling of fluttering in your chest.

AFib can increase your risk of a stroke or heart failure. This is because when the chambers of your heart beat irregularly, blood can easily stall in the chambers and form clots.

“Angina” is the medical term for chest pain. It’s a symptom, rather than a condition, that happens when your heart muscle doesn’t get enough oxygen. The result is a feeling of squeezing or pressure in your chest.

There are multiple types of angina. The most common types are stable and unstable angina. Stable angina is also known as angina with physical exertion. Because exercise and exertion increase your body’s need for oxygen, your heart muscle can suffer.

Unstable angina is a more concerning symptom because it involves chest pain that is unrelated to exertion.

Angina is usually a symptom of an underlying heart condition — most commonly heart disease.

Angina increases your risk of having a heart attack. If you’re experiencing angina, it’s important to consult a doctor and start medical therapy. Your doctor may recommend that you undergo a heart catheterization to find out whether you have any artery blockages that need to be treated with a procedure.

Heart disease can greatly affect your quality of life. If you experience angina, you might avoid exerting yourself for fear of more serious complications.

Heart failure can lead to swelling, dizziness, and other symptoms that can make daily tasks difficult to accomplish.

If you have a heart disease diagnosis, you also live with the stress of knowing that you have a long-term condition that could result in a cardiac event such as heart attack or stroke.

Your long-term outlook with heart disease depends on many factors, including:

  • the type of underlying heart disease
  • your reaction to medications
  • the extent and severity of damage to your heart

If you or a loved one has received a heart disease diagnosis, a regmien of medication and healthy lifestyle habits is important to prevent worsening complications.

Heart disease is considered a chronic condition, and complications can happen after periods of medication-induced improvement.

Seeking treatment after the earliest possible indicators of heart problems, such as high blood pressure or shortness of breath, can result in better outcomes.

What are the five major risks for heart disease?

Five common risk factors for heart disease are:

  • smoking
  • high blood pressure
  • high cholesterol
  • diabetes
  • overweight or obesity

What are the most common complications of heart failure?

Common complications of heart failure include:

What are the most common complications of a heart attack?

Common complications of a heart attack include:

  • arrhythmias (which can cause heart palpitations, chest pain, fatigue, and breathlessness)
  • heart failure
  • cardiogenic shock (which can cause mental confusion, cold hands and feet, rapid heartbeat, decreased need to urinate, and difficulty breathing)
  • heart rupture

What are the most common complications of coronary heart disease?

Complications of coronary heart disease include: