Heart Failure Worse When Right Ventricle Goes Bad
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - 10:56
in Health & Medicine
New research from UAB suggests that the ability of right side of the heart to pump blood may be an indication of the risk of death to heart-failure patients whose condition is caused by low function by the left side of their heart. The ability of the two chambers of the heart, the left and right ventricles, to pump blood is described as ejection fraction. Healthy individuals typically have ejection fractions between 50 and 65 percent in both chambers. UAB researchers say that low right-ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) increased the risk of death in patients with systolic heart failure -- heart failure associated with low left-ventricular ejection fraction.