chf and lupus

anyone have info on lupus and chf,  my rhumie thinks the heart failure i have is from tha lupus but no way to prove

my mom had lupas and i have chf ,my mom died from a heart attack,but i know it wasnt caused by lupas because alot of my family members have died from heart disease.and now i also have it but i dont have lupas.her lupas mostly affected her colon,but it can effect different parts of the body,everyone is different.she lived a long time with lupas.i hope this helps a little.good luck to you,and i hope you can find out some answers.

Hurlbabe,

I hope you have had an echocardiogram to look at your heart to determine if you have systolic dysfunction or diastolic dysfunction. Lupus can cause both types. Unfortunately, it is usually a diagnosis of exclusion--we rule the other main causes of heart failure, and you have lupus, therefore it is probably lupus induced chf. Not a great way to make a diagnosis, but not much better options. However, if you do have systolic dysfunction, they need to make sure you do not have coronary disease--preferably by cardiac MRI, cardiac CT, or angiogram. Often we treat people for a presumed cause of CHF, and never really look at the coronaries--and that is the culprit. So first, get an echocardiogram--and if you have systolic dysfunction (where ejection fraction (LVEF) < 40%) make sure the doctors evaluate you for coronary disease.