[The cardiac lung]

Since lungs, great vessels and heart share together the main volume of the thorax, itself limited by the thoracic wall, variations in pressure or volume of each one must influence the work of the others especially in case of disease. Failure of the left heart overloads the pulmonary vascular bed, induces an interstitial oedema followed by an alveolar oedema with mostly restrictive functional consequences on the lung and disturbed gas exchange. Heart failure can be due to systolic or diastolic dysfunction. These consequences of myocardial and valve diseases of the left heart are initially revealed by unusual dyspnea during exercise worsening progressively to symptoms at rest and even during sleep. Informations obtained from history, physical examination, biology, radiography and echocardiography imaging procedures, respiratory function tests and polysomnography help to precise the diagnosis and the prognosis. The treatment of this cardiac lung conditions depends on its precise etiology.