Heart failure is the common final pathway for many dis-eases, and so heart failure has many causes. The causes of heart failure range from malfunction of the heart valves to infections of the heart muscle to diseases of the bones and blood. It is not sufficient to say that a person has a diagnosis of heart failure without saying what the cause of the heart failure is, such as coronary artery disease or chronic hypertension.
Therefore, a physician must investigate not only how the heart is malfunctioning, but why it is malfunctioning. The doctor arrives at this diagnosis based upon the findings of your medical history, physical examination, and a series of diagnostic tests.