How to Find Stroke Volume

Calculating stroke volume

Stroke volume refers to the amount of blood pumped out by ventricles of the heart in a single contraction. For a healthy person, a stroke volume of 55-125 ml is considered normal. Exercising and strenuous physical activity results in higher stroke volume. A lower stroke volume means lack of blood supply to different organs, which might result in the failure of an organ in severe cases. While you can calculate your stroke volume based on an angiography that your doctor does, consult your doctor to interpret the results, rather than interpreting them yourself.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

Instructions

1. Obtain the medical report after an angiography from your doctor, and locate End Systolic Volume (ESV) and End Diastolic Volume (EDV) values.

2. Stroke volume can be measured as: Stroke Volume (SV) = End Diastolic Volume (EDV) - End Systolic Volume (ESV).

   ESV is the volume of blood in the left ventricle at the end of a heartbeat, while EDV is the volume of the blood at the beginning of the heartbeat.

3. Plug the ESV and EDV values in the above equation to calculate the stroke volume.

Tips & Warnings

• For an accurate measurement of stroke volume, a catheter must be inserted in a patient's veins and an X-ray should be performed to visualize the functionality of the patient's heart.