Afib and EF rate

[bjg05044]

I was admitted to the hospital for an irregular heart rate which turned out to be afib.  It converted 4-5 hours later and no problems since.  The next morning I had a echocardiogram and everything looked good except an ef rate of 50.  I exercise regularly and have a very good recovery heart rate after maximum heart rate of over 60 beats lower after two minutes of rest.  

Is a 50 EF rate something that I need to worry about or could the medication (Cardizem and Lopressor) made my ef rate lower since I was still on the meds at the time of the echo.  I'm very worried that I have a bad heart and will not be able to continue to exercise and live a full life because of this low heart rate.  I'm a 40 year old male in good health and weigh 175 with a cholesterol of 180.


What would you recommend I do next?



Thanks

[Cleveland Clinic]

See my answer above. The prednisone should have no effect on the ejection fraction.

[bjg05044]

I meant to mention that the only thing different than norm was I was taking a prednisone pack and about mid way into it when this happenned.  Is there a correlation?

[tickertock]

Some centers call an Ef of 50-75% normal, others 55-70% as normal, there is a variant of +/-5% in defining the values which is not of much significance from what I gather if all your dimensions are normal and valves are normal , an Ef of 50% would fall within the normal range, though it might be called low normal, a normal value is normal is normal value in my opinion, this is not something I would worry about if you have no other signs of heart failure. This is my opinion only , I'm not an MD. Happy New Year to all.