Ejection Fraction (EF) and Cardiomyopathy (CM)
The heart’s ejection fraction (EF or LVEF) is the estimated percentage of how much blood is pumped out of the last chamber of the heart with each heartbeat to feed the body and organs.
We measure how much blood fills up the last chamber of the heart in between beats, then measure what percentage of that is pushed out of the heart with each beat.
A normal EF falls between 50-70%.
You can find an EF estimated or measured on a few different tests, using a few different methods or calculations, so there will be variance in this result from test to test or measurement method to measurement method.
The types of changes that result in a low EF rarely take place quickly; instead, the remodeling of the heart that we see along with a decreasing EF tends to happen over time. Three main paths the heart takes to get to this point can be:
ischemic, where areas of the heart had reduced or restricted blood flow to the point it caused heart tissue on the other side of the blockage/restriction to die (a heart attack), which over time will then turn into scar tissue. The heart adapts to this damage and the resulting restriction from the scar tissue (like many things in like, this doesn’t work as well as the original) and whatever bottlenecks, blockages, or restricted blood flow there may be, but this adaptation results in reduced function.
non-ischemic; where it’s adapted to a longstanding structural issue, a genetic thing, hormone, drug, deposits, demands, or we just don’t know why.
a tachycardic cardiomyopathy should get it’s own acknowledgement, like a longstanding AF w/ RVR, or SVT that has ran the heart too fast for too long and it has adapted in response
Amyloid is a whole wormhole. It’s a condition where broken bits of malformed protein get stuck in the muscle tissue and over time these fragments build up to cause problems.
Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy is a stress or hormone induced rapid ballooning of the LV, to where it’s shape on an echo is similar to a Takotsubo octopus trap.
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is often caused by a genetic condition.
Mixed. A little of one, a little of the other
