Human life is dependent upon the heart’s ability to pump forcefully and frequently enough, but heart failure signs can disturb its normal function. Most humans cannot live more than four minutes without a heartbeat or continuous blood-flow. At that time, brain cells begin to die because they lack adequately oxygenated blood-flow.
The human adult body requires, on average, 5.0 liters of re-circulated blood per minute. In the cardiology field, this metric is called the “Cardiac Output,” which is calculated as “Stroke Volume (SV)” x “Heart Rate (HR).” Another key metric is a patient’s “Ejection-Fraction (EF %).” A patient’s EF tells a cardiologist and other physicians if his or her heart is functioning normally or “low normally.” It is a measurement of one’s heart contraction, with a normal EF range being 55-70%. [Read more…]
