Heart's pumping function not an indicator of heart failure survival rates

Myth busted! Heart's pumping function is not an indicator of heart failure survival rates, a recent study has suggested.

Heart failure occurs when heart muscle is weakened and cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. The heart's pumping function known as "left ventricular ejection fraction" is measured by ultrasound and shows how well the heart is pumping.

This research used data from the American Heart Association and U.S. Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services that included 39,982 patients from 254 hospitals admitted for heart failure from 2005 to 2009. It categorized heart patients by three distinct ejection fraction subgroups: normal, borderline and reduced.

The findings underscore the serious nature of a diagnosis of heart failure and the long-term risk associated with it, regardless of the heart's estimated pump function.

Better treatments for heart failure and new ways of predicting patient outcomes are needed, researchers concluded.

This study was conducted by UCLA's Medicare patients.