Whenever I see discussion of heart issues there’s always talk about how fluid builds up in the chest, which compresses the heart and lungs and makes it harder for them to function.
What is that fluid? Where does it come from? Is it blood? Mucus? How does it get there? I’ve never really understood why a weak heart would cause excess fluid in the chest cavity, but I would like to learn.
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When you have heart failure you are fluid overloaded (kind of everywhere, not just in your chest). Your heart is not pumping blood efficiently, so there is more blood left upstream and it builds up backwards in the pulmonary circulation. This increases the pressure in the pulmonary vasculature causing fluid to leak out of the vessels and results in pulmonary edema. Just like ankle edema that may also happen in such cases it’s mostly water from the blood.
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