This system was developed by the New York Heart Association to provide a standardized set of criteria for the classification of heart failure.
Heart failure is the hearts inability to pump enough blood through the rest of the body.
Heart failure usually develops slowly, and symptoms may not appear until the condition has progressed over years. Causes include coronary disease, muscle scarring and damage caused by heart attack, cardiac arrhythmias , or any disorder that causes swelling or thickening of the heart. Infections in the heart and problems with the heart valves. It can also be caused when the heart is worked too hard by severe anemia and thyrotoxicoses. Physical examination to check for shortness of breath, fatigue and swelling, hypertension, obesity and taking of family history.