Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsSignificance of LVEFHow LVEF Is MeasuredInterpreting Results
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Significance of LVEF
How LVEF Is Measured
Interpreting Results
The measurement reflects the proportion of blood the ventricle is strong enough to move and most often is expressed as a percentage. For example, if 60% of the blood in the ventricle is pushed out, then the EF is expressed as either 60% or written as a decimal—0.6.
Ejection fraction is a useful factor in diagnosing and monitoring heart failure. It’s most easily determined with anechocardiogram, although there are other tests that can be used to measure EF.
Although the heart has two ventricles, it is the ejection fraction of theleftventricle—often referred to as LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)—cardiologists focus on when measuring ejection fraction.
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When the heart becomes weak, the muscle fibers become unable to contract fully, decreasing the volume of blood pumped per beat— what is known as “stroke volume.”
To compensate, the heart becomes larger in order to hold more blood, allowing for a more normal stroke volume to be maintained. Cardiac dilation (enlarging) that occurs with heart muscle disease is known as “remodeling.”
As a measure of the overall strength of the heart, ejection fraction is helpful for diagnosing cardiomegaly, as well as other heart problems such ascardiomyopathy(weakness of the heart muscle that can be a precursor of heart failure) andcoronary artery disease(CAD).
Heart Failure
Therefore, acardiologistmight choose to measure the ejection fraction of someone who has symptoms associated with poor heart function, such as:
Healthcare providers also use ejection fraction to monitor cardiac health after a heart attack, determine thetreatment for heart failure, and assess the effectiveness of that treatment.
Ejection fraction can be determined in one of three ways:
The more blood the left ventricle can push out with each heartbeat the stronger the heart. This makes it relatively easy to understand what an LVEF reading means: The higher the percentage, the healthier the heart.
Cardiologists do use certain standards when interpreting LVEF results in terms of evaluating heart health based on the fact the left ventricle typically ejects 55% or more of its blood volume per beat.
An LVEF of 50% or more is considered normal.
If a person has symptoms of heart failure with a normal ejection fraction, this is referred to as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), formerly known asdiastolic heart failure. This is an indication that as a result of remodeling, the heart muscle has become thick or rigid, preventing the normal volume of blood from filling up the ventricles during the relaxation phase (diastole) between heartbeats.
An LVEF of 41% to 49% is considered mildly reduced. Patients with this ejection fraction and symptoms of heart failure are said to have “HFmrEF,” or “heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction.”
An LVEF of 40% or less is referred to as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), formerly known as systolic heart failure, indicating an inability of the heart muscle to pump (“eject”) enough blood during each heartbeat to reach the rest of the body.
An ejection fraction of greater than 75% also can indicate a heart condition known ashypertrophic cardiomyopathythat causes the heart muscle to thicken and can lead to cardiac arrest.
A Word from Verywell
4 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Clarke CL, Grunwald GK, Allen LA, et al.Natural history of left ventricular ejection fraction in patients with heart failure.Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes.2013;6(6):680–686. doi:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.111.000045
Gazewood JD, Turner PL.Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: Diagnosis and management.Amer Fam Phys.2017;96(9):582-588.
Heidenreich P, Bozkurt B, Aguilar D, et al.2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA guideline for the management of heart failure.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;79(17):e263–e421. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2021.12.012
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