Three-dimensional echocardiographic volume computation by polyhedral surface reconstruction: in vitro validation and comparison to magnetic resonance imaging.
Two-dimensional echocardiographic methods of left ventricular volume computation are limited by geometric assumptions and image plane positioning error in the nonvisualized dimension. We evaluated a three-dimensional (3D echocardiographic method that addresses these limitations. Our method uses a volume computation algorithm based on polyhedral surface reconstruction (PSR) and nonparallel, unequally spaced, nonintersecting short-axis planes. Seventeen balloon phantoms were subjected to volume computation by the 3D echocardiography-PSR method and by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and compared to true volumes determined by water displacement. The results for 3D echocardiography-PSR were: accuracy = 2.27%, interobserver variability = 4.33%, r = 0.999, SEE = 2.45 ml, and p less than 0.001. Results for MRI were 8.01%, 13.78%, r = 0.995, SEE = 7.01 ml, and p less than 0.001. There was no statistically significant difference between the methods. We conclude that precise image plane positioning and use of the 3D echocardiographic-PSR volume computation method achieves high accuracy and reproducibility in vitro. The excellent in vitro correlation between 3D echocardiography-PSR and MRI indicates that MRI may also serve as an in vivo standard of comparison.
Gopal
A S
AS
Department of Radiology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
King
D L
DL
Katz
J
J
Boxt
L M
LM
King
D L
DL
Shao
M Y
MY
D002306:Cardiac Volume; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008961:Models, Structural; D015203:Reproducibility of Results