Common heart conditions

Patients and carers tell us that it’s important to know why they have heart failure because it then puts the diagnosis into context. Heart failure can be caused by current or past medical conditions, which either damage or add extra workload to the heart. If you have (or had) more than one of these conditions, your risk of heart failure is substantially increased. Your doctor should be able to tell you what may have caused your heart failure.

This section lists the different conditions that can cause or trigger heart failure, explaining what each condition is and how it can cause heart failure. Simply click on any of the conditions below to learn more.

Some of the more common causes of heart failure include:

• Coronary artery disease
• Past heart attacks
• High blood pressure
• Valvular Heart disease
• Abnormal heart rhythm/Atrial Fibrillation
• Heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy and inflammation)
• Congenital heart defects