Heart Disease and Heart Attack Forum - Cardiomyopathy progression

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Q: Cardiomyopathy progression

asked by: DoctorQuestion on November 13th, 2008

I had a Echocardiogram done in November 2005, with an Ejection Fraction of 45%. I had another Echocardiogram done in July 2007, with an Ejection Fraction of 35%. What is the probability that my Ejection Fraction has gone below 30% since I had the last echocardiogram done?

Replies(1)

Dr. Goce Aleksovski , MD

replied on November 17th, 2008

Heart Disease and Heart Attack Answer A4902

One of the methods to determine the level of cardiomyopathy is echocardiography. One of the measurements that can be taken with echocardiography is the ejection fraction. Ejection fraction from 50 to 70% is considered normal. Any decrease of ejection fraction below 50% implicates a cardiac disease. Ejection fraction below 35% indicates that the heart pumps only about ½ of the blood pumped in normal circumstances. That quantity of blood might not be enough for the organs, including the heart muscle itself, thus increasing the risk of life-threatening irregular heartbeats.

The intensity of cardiomyopathy progression can not be predicted nor determined without measuring the ejection fraction, at least.

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