Assessing Left Ventricular Mass and Volumes with 3D Echocardiography
Author Information
Author(s): Pouleur A-C, le Polain de Waroux J-B, Pasquet A, Gerber B L, Gérard O, Allain P, Vanoverschelde J-L J
Primary Institution: Cliniques Universitaires St Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Hypothesis
Is three-dimensional echocardiography (3-DE) as accurate and reproducible as cine magnetic resonance imaging (cMR) in estimating left ventricular parameters in patients with and without wall motion abnormalities?
Conclusion
3-DE allows for accurate determination of left ventricular mass and volumes, regardless of the presence of wall motion abnormalities.
Supporting Evidence
- 3-DE measurements of LV mass were similar to those obtained by cMR.
- 3-DE underestimated end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes compared to cMR.
- 3-DE and cMR provided similarly low inter-observer variability for all LV measurements.
Takeaway
This study shows that a special type of heart imaging called 3D echocardiography can measure heart size and function just as well as a more expensive method called MRI.
Methodology
83 patients underwent both 3-DE and cMR, with measurements taken twice by different observers to assess accuracy and reproducibility.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to the manual adjustments needed for contour detection.
Limitations
The 3-D algorithm for drawing epicardial contours is not fully automatic and requires manual adjustments.
Participant Demographics
Mean age 54 years, 67 men, with a range from 7 to 85 years.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Statistical Significance
p<0.001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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