One Heart Measure Sanders Should Disclose But Isn’t

Richard Kovacs, the president of the American College of Cardiology, told NBC News that by releasing one simple indicator of his heart health, Sen. Bernie Sanders could address some lingering questions.

“That indicator, called the left ventricular ejection fraction, is provided to any patient after a heart attack… It’s a measure of how much blood volume the heart pushes out with an individual heartbeat and it correlates with the risk for future cardiac events and mortality rate.”

Said Kovacs: “Normally the heart will push out 60 percent. If you go down to 40 or 50 percent, we regard that as mild impairment of the left ventricle. Thirty to 40 percent would be moderate. If you get to 30 percent, that would be severe.”