Case Study: Congestive Heart Failure

Chief Complaint: 74-year-old woman with shortness of breath and swelling.

History: Martha Wilmington, a 74-year-old woman with a history of rheumatic fever while in her twenties, presented to her physician with complaints of increasing shortness of breath (“dyspnea”) upon exertion. She also noted that the typical swelling she’s had in her ankles for years has started to get worse over the past two months, making it especially difficult to get her shoes on toward the end of the day. In the past week, she’s had a decreased appetite, some nausea and vomiting, and tenderness in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen.

On physical examination, Martha’s jugular veins were noticeably distended. Auscultation of the heart revealed a low-pitched, rumbling systolic murmur, heard best over the left upper sternal border. In addition, she had an extra, “S3” heart sound.

Questions:

1. What is causing this murmur?

2. . You examine Martha’s abdomen and find that she has an enlarged liver (“hepatomegaly”) and a moderate degree of ascites (water in the peritoneal cavity). Explain these findings.

3. Two weeks after starting digoxin, Martha returns to the physician’s office for a follow-up visit. On physical examination, she still has significant hepatomegaly and pitting edema, and is significantly hypertensive (i.e. she has high blood pressure). Her physician prescribes a diuretic called furosemide (or “Lasix”). Why was she given this medication, and how does it work?

please answer each question in the same format of 1,2,3. Do not use no outside source when answering the question use the information above to answer the questions you can do research in order to answer the question and to gain background knowledge no references are needed.