Ejection fraction
The ejection fraction (or, more correctly, left-ventricular ejection fraction, often abbreviated LVEF) is a measure of how much blood the left ventricle of the heart pumps out with each contraction. With each beat, a normal heart ejects about one-half to two-thirds of the blood in its left chamber. In heart failure, this fraction may be severely reduced, even down to below ten per cent.
The most commonly used method to measure the ejection fraction is echocardiography. Other methods include cardiac MRI, and fast scan cardiac computed axial tomography (CT) imaging. The current gold standard for the measurement of ejection fraction is a MUGA scan, which involves the injection of a radioisotope into the blood and detecting its flow through the left ventricle.
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