Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Echocardiogram vs. MUGA
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests
Echocardiogram vs. MUGA
by Mark Frost, Sep 28, 2000 12:00AM
A year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with dilated cardiomiopathy after an echocardiogram. It showed my EF to be 25%. My cardiologist followed up with a MUGA scan which showed the EF to be 49%. Recently, I had a stress echo test. On it, my pre-exercise EF was 30% and my post-excercise EF was 35%. Again, my cardiologist followed up with a MUGA, which said my EF was 59%. Why such a difference and which is more likely to be correct?
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD - DLB, Sep 28, 2000 12:00AM
The echo and MUGA are completely different ways of imaging the heart and usually give numbers for the EF that are different from one another, though usually not by as much as in your case. These differences can be due to technical factors associated with the tests, or to associated abnormalities such as valve leakage (mitral regurgitation). The way I would interpret the tests is that your heart function has improved somewhat, though it is still moderately abnormal.
Member Comments (2)
by Penny To All Above, Sep 28, 2000 12:00AM
This may be a strange question but does anyone out there know if EF can be too high? My echo report says that mine is 80% which seems abnormally high if the norm is 50-60.
by Dr_Omar, Apr 02, 2008 05:16PM
A related discussion, Different values of LVEF on echocardiogram and MUGA was started.
