heart failure

See also: heart-failure

English

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Noun

heart failure (countable and uncountable, plural heart failures)

  1. (cardiology, pathology) The chronic inability of the heart to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body, leading to a pooling of blood and shortness of breath.
    Synonyms: congestive cardiac failure, congestive heart failure
    Hyponyms: HFrEF (heart failure due to reduced ejection fraction), HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction)
  2. (cardiology, pathology) The cessation of the heartbeat; cardiac arrest.
    • 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 56:
      Such is the vocal power of water bailiffs and farmers that their ‘Ois!’ can be projected at small boys from anything up to five miles away and still induce heart-failure.

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