Consequently, heart failure cases have increased as more of the population becomes elderly and as medical advances help more of them live to advanced age. Your doctor can often make a preliminary diagnosis of heart failure with a medical history and careful physical examination. He or she probably will check particularly for enlargement of the heart, irregular heart sounds, abnormal sounds in the lungs, swelling or tenderness of the liver, fluid retention, and elevation of pressure in the veins of the neck. Often it is difficult to confirm a diagnosis of heart failure or determine its severity once a diagnosis has been made. Further tests are usually needed.
Ejection fraction is the percent of blood pumped out of a heart chamber during each beat.
An EF of 50-75 percent is normal. In most heart failure cases, the left side of the heart fails. This causes fluid to back up and accumulate in the lungs. The EF in such cases falls below 40 percent-in severe failure it may drop as low as 5 percent. A diagnostic method called an echocardiography test is often used for heart failure.