Heart failure prognosis relating to the ejection fraction

[michelle80]

Hi,
Is there anybody who can give me any information on the prognosis of heart faliure relating to the calculated ejection fraction from echocardiogram please. I am in the process of writing a research project on the modes of calculating ejection fraction and their reliability. Somebody told me that the ejection fraction banding of mild, moderate and severely impaired LV systolic function can help determine prognosis of heart failure. Do you know of any published data for this?

Thankyou very much

Michelle.

[R. Zein, Pharm D]

During each heartbeat, the heart contracts and relaxes. When your heart contracts (systole), it ejects blood from the pumping chambers (ventricles). When your heart relaxes (diastole), the ventricles refill with blood. No matter how forceful the contraction, it doesn't empty all of the blood out of a ventricle. The term ejection fraction refers to the percentage of blood that is pumped out of a filled ventricle with each heartbeat. This measures the capacity at which your heart is pumping.

Because the left ventricle is the heart's main pumping chamber, ejection fraction is usually measured in the left ventricle. A normal ejection fraction is 55 percent to 70 percent. The ejection fraction may decrease when the heart muscle has been damaged, such as due to: Heart attack , or Heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy), and
Heart valve problems

so ejection fraction of less than 50 indicates a form of heart failure, of course once it is the 20 range or less, this might indicate severe CHF

THANK YOU