Provided by Nora Goldschlager, MD
Director, Coronary Care Unit, San Franciso General Hospital
Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

This list of questions is a good starting point for discussion with your doctor; however, it is not a comprehensive list.

1. What exactly is heart failure?
2. How do I know I have it?  What are the symptoms?
3. Are there different forms of heart failure?
4. How does hypertension cause heart failure?
5. Can I have heart failure and not have symptoms?
6. What are the treatments for heart failure? Are there medicines?  What kind, how many? What are the side effects?
7. Can heart failure come from too fast a heartbeat?
8. Can heart failure come from too high a blood pressure?
9. Do pacemakers help in heart failure? How? What kind?
10. If I join an exercise program, will it help my heart failure?
11. Can heart failure run in families?
12. Who needs a heart transplant? What are the results?