Hypertension is high blood pressure in your arteries, which carry
blood from your heart to every part of your body. Hypertension makes it harder
for your heart to pump blood because of the increased pressure in the arteries.
Over time, this increased pressure can lead to
heart failure.
If you have high blood pressure, you may get symptoms of both diastolic and systolic heart failure.
How does hypertension cause diastolic heart failure?As your heart works to pump against the increased pressure in your
arteries, your heart muscle thickens to help your heart pump harder. This
thickening of the heart muscle is called hypertrophy. Although hypertrophy can
temporarily help your heart to pump against the increased pressure, eventually
your thickened heart muscle will become stiff and less able to relax and fill
with blood. When this happens, you may develop diastolic heart failure.
How does hypertension cause systolic heart failure? To pump against your high blood pressure, your heart has to
increase the pressure inside your left ventricle when it pumps. After years of
working harder to pump blood, your ventricle may begin to weaken. When this
happens, the pressure inside the weakened left ventricle will cause the
ventricle to expand, stretching out the heart muscle. This damaging process is
called dilation, and it impairs your heart's ability to squeeze forcefully. The
result is systolic heart failure.
