‘Heart failure often mistaken for other diseases’

A new group has been formed to promote public awareness of the dangers of heart failure, warning that the chronic condition is often mistaken for other diseases which share similar symptoms.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to fulfill the body’s needs.

President of the Heart Failure Society, cardiologist Michael Wong, said symptoms aren’t limited to a racing heart or irregular heartbeat.

“Some of the typical symptoms like shortness of breath, lower-limb swelling or abdominal bloating … they’re [often] mistaken as other diseases, such as asthma or diabetes. [People] don’t even think it’s related to the heart,” he said in a press conference on Sunday.

“[Patients] will seek relevant [specialists] for check-up. If they are told to be normal, they’d think the symptoms aren’t major problems. This is a common cause for delayed diagnosis of heart failure in Hong Kong.”

Wong said many people have the misconception that a heart transplant is required for heart failure, but actually many such conditions can be controlled by medication.

The group also advised patients to be inoculated against Covid-19 and seasonal flu so long as their health condition is stable, noting that those with heart failure face much greater health risks if infected.