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Well, shock is inability of the body to meet its metabolic demands. So “shock” the way we define it in cardiology is inability of the heart to pump effectively to the tissues where the blood pressure is very low and the cardiac output is very low. Now, shock could happen for a lot of reasons. Shock could happen because there’s not enough circulating volume, too little bodily fluid. It can happen because the person’s bleeding from hypovolemic shock. It could happen because there is sepsis and infection, that could also cause shock. But the shock that we’re talking about is cardiogenic shock, meaning shock from the heart’s inability to pump blood to the tissues. It is a life threatening emergency and needs to be addressed emergently.
