Patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (< 50 %)

Patients with a normal left ventricular ejection fraction (≥ 50 %), without heart failure. The patients from the reduced left ventricular ejection fraction group will be matched with patients from the control group for sex, age, BMI and cardiovascular treatment.

This device records the electric and mechanic function of the heart. With electrodes and adequate electronics, ECG is recorded. 6 degrees of freedom accelerometers are also included in the device to measure the micro accelerations of the body at the body surface when the device is placed on the skin. Using physics principles and adequate calibration, those accelerations allow us to calculate parameters such as kinetics energies related to cardiac contractility.

During a standard echocardiography appointment for a patient suffering from a cardiovascular condition with/without heart failure, the cardiologist will monitor the heart of the patient with the Kino device (examination lasting a few minutes with the patient lying down on a bed). Data will be matched between the control group and the experimental group.

Computed according to the micro accelerations of the body at the body surface. The hypothesis is that the investigators will observe a lower total heart kinetic energy for the group with impaired left ventricular ejection fraction in comparison to a paired control patient group.

Computed according to the micro accelerations of the body at the body surface. The hypothesis is that the investigators will observe a lower ratio of torsional kinetic energy over total kinetic energy for the impaired left ventricular ejection fraction group in comparison to a paired control group.