Cor pulmonale describes right heart failure due to which condition?

• A. Cor pulmonale
• B. Cardiac cachexia
• C. Eisenmenger syndrome
• D. Aortic dissection

Answer: (A)

Cor pulmonale is right-sided heart failure caused by chronic pulmonary hypertension from lung disease. The lungs’ disease—such as COPD or interstitial lung disease—drives ongoing low oxygen levels that trigger narrowing and remodeling of pulmonary arteries. This raises the resistance the right ventricle must pump against (afterload). Over time the right ventricle thickens and then dilates and fails, leading to signs of right-sided congestion like peripheral edema and hepatomegaly. This is distinct from cardiac cachexia, which is weight loss due to advanced heart failure; Eisenmenger syndrome involves shunt changes from congenital heart disease causing pulmonary hypertension, not the typical scenario described by cor pulmonale; and aortic dissection is a vascular emergency unrelated to this pathophysiology.