Questions about heart function in tranplant recipient

[SRH]

My father is 58 years old and suffered a heart attack four years ago.  Prior to that, he was the first pancreas/kidney transplant recipient (juvenile diabetic) in Oklahoma.  The transplant was done in 1991 at Oschner's Clinic, New Orleans.

After the heart attack, he was told he had 40 percent damage to his heart.  This was in 2002.  Last year he had some more work done on his transplanted organs (in New Orleans) and at that time they performed another ultrasound, which confirmed the 40 percent damage and an EF of around 37 percent.  He started seeing a local cardiologist about six months ago who did another ultrasound and pronounced that, nope, my father really had sixty percent damage and an EF of 27 percent.

We don’t know what to believe, although I know there is some variability in these tests.  My father is asymptomatic.  He gardens daily, is amazingly active and does cardio exercise on a ski machine for six minutes a day.  He takes 200mg Co-Q10 daily, along with Coreg, a mild diuretic, and a host of other medicines associated with the transplant, as well as a good swig of pomegranate juice each morning.  He doesn’t smoke and his total cholesterol is around 140, with a good HDL/LDL ratio.

I apologize for the long message, but there is, psychologically, a world of difference to him (and us) between 40 percent damage and 60 percent damage.  Is it even possible to do all these things I have mentioned when 60 percent of your heart isn’t working?  Thanks so much for your patience reading this, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[Cleveland Clinic]

srh,

Thanks for the post.

I cant tell you how often I get this question. I really sometimes wish that we didnt report the heart function as a number. People really focus on these numbers, mostly because there arent too many concrete things in medicine.

The most important thing for your father with respect to his overall outcome with respect all of his heath issues is how he feels and how active he is. The lack of any significant heart failure symptoms is more important than any report of ejection fraction seen on an echo report.  

good luck

[SRH]

Thanks for the reply.  After a lot of research I have come to understand that EF is only one of many variables of concern.  I guess my real concern hovered around the "percent heart damage" amount.  Honestly, so much of dealing with this sort of thing is how one's spirit holds up.  It's hard to be upbeat when you walk around thinking that 60% of your heart is dead.  I just have difficulty believing that someone who gets up at 4:30 every morning and works pretty much until the evening, and then does time on a ski machine can be walking around with 40 percent of their heart working (on top of pumping blood through three kidneys and two pancreases!)  Oh, well.  His spirits are high and so then are mine.  Thanks again for your input!

SRH