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Your Question . My best friend's doctor told her that she has:j45.9 unspecified asthma. She's never heard of that type before and could not find useful information about it. I remembered this blog and the useful answer you gave me in the past, so I thought I would ask you. What does this type of asthma mean? My Answer.   What is this unusual asthma type ? J45 is the official billing code for asthma. J45.9 basically means it's unspecified. That basically means your doctor is billing for asthma but didn't list anything specific about it. It's what's officially called an ICD-10 Code. This is not a subgroup or anything like that. It's just for billing purposes. It's a code your doctor enters into the system so the office gets paid by the insurance company or Medicare.  Here is a link if you're interested. 

Heart failure, if untreated, can lead to death because other organs of the body will not be receiving enough oxygen. Usually, one of the first organs to be affected are the kidneys. The kidneys will fail and lose their ability to excrete salts and water, and actually, cause your body to retain more fluid. Actually, kidney failure alone can lead to pulmonary edema, or exacerbate it. Likewise, fluid will back up in the liver, which in turn will fail in its job of removing toxins from the body. Lacking oxygen, the large and small intestines will lose their ability to absorb nutrients, and thus one organ after another will fail, ultimately leading to death. Of course, our job as healthcare workers is to prevent this. Well, it's the doctor's job actually. We as RTs usually only treat heart failure after symptoms arise.