• An older term for heart failure, a disorder caused by a decrease in the heart's ability to pump blood. Congestive heart failure referred specifically to the type of heart failure associated with the accumulation of excess fluid in the lungs or extremities.
  Harvard Dictionary of Health Terms
  Harvard Medical Publishing, 2011
• Complication of heart diseases; defective cardiac filling and/or impaired contraction and emptying, resulting in the heart's inability to pump a sufficient amount of blood to meet the needs of the body tissues or to be able to do so only with an elevated filling pressure.
  CRISP Thesaurus
  National Institutes of Health, 2006
• Failure of the heart to pump a sufficient amount of blood to meet the needs of the body tissues, resulting in tissue congestion and edema. Signs and symptoms include shortness of breath, pitting edema, enlarged tender liver, engorged neck veins, and pulmonary rales.
  NCI
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• Heart failure accompanied by EDEMA, such as swelling of the legs and ankles and congestion in the lungs.
  NLM Medical Subject Headings
  U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025
• The presence of an abnormality of cardiac function that is responsible for the failure of the heart to pump blood at a rate that is commensurate with the needs of the tissues or a state in which abnormally elevated filling pressures are required for the heart to do so. Heart failure is frequently related to a defect in myocardial contraction.
  Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO)
  The Human Phenotype Ontology Project, 2025
• Weakness of the heart muscle that leads to a buildup of fluid in body tissues.
  NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• (heart failure/congestive heart failure) Inability of the heart to pump blood adequately to fill tissue metabolic requirements or the ability to do so only at an elevated filling pressure.
  U.S. FDA Glossary
  U.S. Food & Drug Administration, 2021
• Congestive heart failure, Heart failure resulting in the accumulation of fluid in the lungs and other body tissues. It is related mainly to salt and water retention in the tissues rather than directly to reduced blood flow. Blood pools in the veins (vascular congestion) because the heart does not...
  Encyclopedia Britannica
  Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2025