cardiac insufficiency
- noun
- /ˈkɑrdɪæk ɪnˈsʌfɪʃənsi/
- Specialized
:
insuficiencia cardíaca
- The doctor explained that cardiac insufficiency can lead to severe complications if not managed properly.
Examples
-
Regular check-ups are essential for someone diagnosed with cardiac insufficiency to monitor their heart function.
-
In addition to stroke and cardiac insufficiency, poorly treated or untreated hypertension puts the patient at high risk for white matter disease and cerebral microbleeds (see below).
Academic text (2014) -
Patients with cardiac insufficiency often experience fatigue and shortness of breath during physical activities.
Synonyms
48
3.0
A condition when the heart cannot pump enough blood around the body
10
3.5
A condition in which the heart cannot pump blood well, causing fluid to build up in the body
A condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood for the body
How Severe
- Specialized
48
3.0
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents directly contribute to the meaning: 'cardiac' = related to the heart and 'insufficiency' = failure or inability to function, so together they straightforwardly indicate that the heart is not functioning sufficiently (heart failure). This is a compositional, cross‑linguistically common medical pattern that a B1 learner who knows both words can reasonably infer, though the term is technical.
Etymology
Cardiac insufficiency comes from a simple image: cardiac means the heart and insufficiency means 'not enough'. Imagine a house water pump that cannot push water through the pipes; if the heart cannot push enough blood around the body, that is cardiac insufficiency, so it means the heart cannot pump enough blood for the body's needs.