ejection fraction

[mickey145]

What is the margin of error on ejection fraction readings?

[madjlp]

I've always heard +-6% for echo measurements.  Your EF cycles depending on the day, time, circumstances etc and the echo techs/mri techs vary slightly from one to the next even when they're competent (and sometimes they aren't - I had a guy mismeasure my left atrium by close to 30% for no apparent reason).  Anyway - I can tell you that my measurements (over the course of 3 echos, 1 nuclear stess test and 1 mri all done at facilities/docs with good reputations) have ranged from 54% to 65% for whatever that's worth.

[kenkeith]

The margin of error with a cath is about 3%.  It could be higher 5-10% for an echo depending heart rate (faster hr obscures dimensions' and more difficult to trace (outline)with the transducer), calibration, and skill of tech, etc.

[kenkeith]

Left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) is the intra ventricle (left) pressure at the end of the filling phase and indicates the amount of filling that will occur for a specified filling pressure.  It is a key physiological determinant of filling capacity (preload and is fundamental to the study of the pathophysiology of ventricular remodeling in heart failure and in response to surgical, pharmacological, or device-based treatment strategies.

LVEDP is independant of LVEF (pumping functionality).  For some insight and a statistics from a study of in-hospital mortality.  Patients undergoing CABG (surgical bypass) were further stratified according to abnormal left ventricular function, determined by either LVEF below 30% (heart failure range) or LVEDP exceeding 19 mm Hg. Those LVEF and LVEDP values were based on previous studies which identified them as cut-offs associated with increased mortality and morbidity.

[checkmatedrive]

I just recently had a right heart cath.  They said I was fine except my end diastolic pressure was high 19 mmgh and greater.  What does that mean.  I have looked everywhere.  Good luck on you dillemma.  checkmatedrive