Can a heart ultrasound detect heart failure?

Heart failure can be detected by cardiac ultrasound. Patients with heart failure will clinically present mainly with chest tightness and shortness of breath after activity, or even with breath-holding and profuse sweating. Patients with heart failure who undergo a cardiac ultrasound will often be found to have an enlarged heart to the sides, thinning of the heart muscle cells, and a decreased ejection fraction of the heart. The normal value of cardiac ejection fraction should be more than 60%, even for older patients, we will relax the standard of cardiac ejection fraction should be more than 50%. That is, the heart should eject at least 50% of the blood within the ventricles in a single ejection. In patients with heart failure, a cardiac ultrasound will often reveal an ejection fraction of less than 50%, and even less than 40% in patients with severe heart failure. In patients with heart failure with an ejection fraction of less than 40%, there is always a clinical risk of sudden death. Therefore, cardiac ultrasound can detect heart failure and is a good aid in grading heart failure.