Lung water content is not increased in chronic cardiac failure.

I n patients with acute heart failure, lung water content is increased leading to pulmonary oedema. This can be detected clinically and radiologically, and makes a major contribution to the severe dyspnoea characteristic of this condition. In contrast, the lung water content in stable chronic cardiac failure has not been defined, as previous studies all included patients with overt fluid overload in their analysis. We therefore carried out a pilot study with computed tomography (CT) measurement of lung water in patients with stable chronic cardiac failure, as well as some patients with acute heart failure, and compared their scans with scans from patients without evidence of heart failure.