Ejection Fraction??

[DeuxofUs]

For some reason, my cardio tells me I have an EXCELLENT Ejection Fraction... last echo it was 69 now it's 68...

Can someone explain to me (in dummy mode) what this is?

My echo yesterday showed NO abnormalities... no co-arction, aneurysms... etc. Just a calcified aortic valve.... They got a brand new state of the art machine and the tech pointed out the calcification!!! :rolleyes2:

I'm going to go do the MRI thing.. I WON"T do the MRA.. sorry.. not having that crap injected into my veins... So that ONE area they can't see on the echo.. I want to make sure there are no aneurysms.

So anyway... back to the ejection fraction... what is that?

Thanks!

 

[scott.eitman]

Simple terms: EF is the percentage of blood that is ejected from the heart that does not get sucked back in before the valve closes.

It is my uncerstanding that a typcial person is around 70%. I was at 50% before my 1st AVR and 45% before my 2nd. I would love to be at 68.

Best of luck to you and stay well.
Scott

 

[AgilityDog]

Wikipedia says:
"Healthy individuals typically have ejection fractions between 50% and 65%.[5][verification needed] However, normal values depend upon the modality being used to calculate the ejection fraction, and some sources consider an ejection fraction of 55-75% to be normal."

Mine's at 50-55 now, was at 40 before the second replacement.

 

[Bina]

Pre surgery my EF was always in the normal range but my symptoms got horrible and I stalled surgery long enough
to scare the crap out of more than a few people. You don't want to do that Finally agreed to OHS when AVA was
at .8 and I could barely walk.

 

[Mentu]

So you now understand ejection fraction. Often those of us who need a new valve have normal EF before surgery; mine was 60% +/- 5% which is essentially normal. My surgeon said that this is one of the things that indicates your heart is compensating. The more important figures are the pressures. Before the AVR, the mean gradient at my AV was 61.5 mmHg with a peak gradient of 127.5 mmHg; Aortic valve area was 0.74cm2. It is good that you are actually reading your test results. If you keep a record for yourself, you can follow the changes in these values over time as your doctor monitors your progress. A year after my valve replacement, the mean pressure gradient was 18 mmHg with a peak of 35 mmHg; not perfect but one hell of a lot better.

Larry

 

[normofthenorth]

My understanding, and my experience, were both a lot like Larry's.