Hi,
This is my first post. This forum is great. I recently had an echocardiography done. The doc who did it told me that it was ok. I found that all readings were normal except Mitral Valve MV Mode. The EF was 30 mm/sec. This is quite below the normal range. There is another EF in the report in percentage which is 75%.

My question is if he found the mitral valve ef so low why did he say everything was ok ? Should I be worried ?

Thanks

dheart,

I have very little experience with electrocardiography but I know the ejection fraction given in a PERCENT is the important number reflecting the amount of blood pumped from the left ventricle with each beat...75% is as good as it gets.
The other number is given as a speed: 30 mm./second and really isn't an ejection fraction, perhaps it the speed of blood exiting the mitral valve...and I don;t know what, if any standards apply.
My guess it's just another number that is electronically kicked out by the machine and doesn't have much clinical meaning. If it's labelled EF, then it's labelled erroneously.

Give the chart another look.

Hi dheart,

Normal EF (ejection fraction of blood pumped)is approximately 50 to 70%. An EF that is too high could indicate the system is compensating for circulation deficiency. The problematic condition could/will eventually drop abruptly to an EF below 29%, if the heart has been compensating. If the doc didn't find a problem, you are OK...just a good EF and a healthy heart.

The EKG has a horizontal axis measured in time between points on graph for each heartbeat. There are no E,F points, and I have never read anything relating to a MV ejection fraction, but during each heartbeat there is a measurement relating to the time the MV and other valves are open.

I have had probably close to 100 echo's in my lifetime. I was just looking at the reports that I have and from what I can get that normal is between 20 and 30 mm. So it sounds like your's are right where they should be

Thanks guys,
I am feeling a little better ;-)