CHF

Hello and thank you so much. You guys are like angels to me. I am the 53 yr old female with cardiomyopathy and chf. My ejection fraction was 45 when I did the stress echo. My cardiologist said I had a weak heart. The 1st time I asked him if I had chf he said no. Then the following week I asked him the same question and he said yes, I believed based on last summer I had crackels in my r lung one time.  My pcp blamed it on my asthma which apparently has nothing to do with asthma.... the crackles that is. I don't know what to think but I thank God they caught mine early.. I am 115 lbs, non smoker, dont drink, no diabetes, no high blood pressure. My mom does have a mild case of cardiomyopathy at age 75 but yet doesnt take any meds its so mild. So my cardio wrote me up as having cardiomyopathy and chf. Why is that?

[ChatterAlly]

What are your symptoms? What sent you to doctor and what treatment has been started?

[DLee76]

I was and still am suffering from fatigue, palpitations and short of breath. Currently I am on Coreg, 6.25 mg, I go back in may and I believe he will up it because my heart races sometimes too

[ChatterAlly]

I will be very interested in knowing what your doctor says during your next visit. I have to ask have you made changes to your diet and are you exercising to bring up your energy level?  Simple things like that can make a big difference in how you feel.

[kenkeith]

Q:"My ejection fraction was 45 when I did the stress echo. My cardiologist said I had a weak heart".

An EF of 45 would indicate a weaker than normal functioning heart.  Normal is 50 to 70% and that is the percent pumped into circulation with each heartbeat.  For reference and the EF acknowledged by some insurance policies is an EF 29% and lower is heart failure range.

Heart failure is a symptom and not a disease, but often it is referred to as the illness, it seems.  I was in heart failure mode 7 years ago, and my heart was pumping less than 29% of the blood received from the lungs and blood backed up into the lungs and when  fluids leak into the lung tissues there is shortness of breath, dry cough, etc....pulmonary edema.  One can have cardiomyopathy meaning heart disease that relates to the heart muscle malady such as thickened heart walls, enlarged left ventricle chamber, and when severe that will cause heart failure symptoms and sometimes only a lower than normal EF...but untreated can lead to heart failure.

Sometimes cardiomyopathy can be successfully treated if the underlying is identified.  I had dilated cardiomyopathy and the underlying cause was high blood pressure.  The dilated left ventricle reduced my EF to heart failure range. Successful therapy was medication to reduce the resistance the heart pumped against and that relief from a heavier than normal workload enabled the heart to return to normal size and my EF is currently at 59%.

Thanks for your question, and if you have any further questions or comments your are welcome to respond.  take care.

Ken