title: [Echocardiography: a quantitative evaluation method of ventricular remodeling].
abstract: Left ventricular remodeling consists of changes in size and geometry of the left ventricular cavity associated with changes in wall thickness. These changes occur in different conditions such as during growth, pressure or volume overload or after myocardial infarction. Echocardiography in M or two dimensional modes provides a means of evaluating global and regional left ventricular function and of measuring variations of wall thickness during the cardiac cycle. Using mathematical models in the parasternal (surface-length method) or apical views (Simpson's method) of the left ventricle, the end diastolic and end systolic volumes and ejection fraction can be calculated with reasonable accuracy, so enabling detection of spontaneous or therapeutically-induced variations of clinical significance. The extent of the akinetic or dyskinetic myocardium can be compared with the diastolic perimeter and expressed as a percentage value. This parameter is one of the quantitative values for expressing "expansion" of the necrosed segment and the changes occurring in the non-infarcted areas. M-mode echocardiography more than the two dimensional mode enables measurement of wall thickness and calculation of myocardial mass, providing the clinician with an assessment of myocardial hypertrophy and its relation to left ventricular chamber size (wall thickness/LV radius ratio). Of the different available methods of cardiac imaging, echocardiography is the most widely used because it is non-invasive and can be used repetitively to document the progressive changes in size and wall thickness of the left ventricle, known as "remodeling".
authors.affiliation: Service de cardiologie, Limoges.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guéret
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bensaïd
mesh_terms: D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004452:Echocardiography; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left
vernacular_title: L'échocardiographie: instrument d'évaluation quantitative du remodelage ventriculaire.