On-line echocardiographic assessment of hemodynamic indexes by an adaptive Doppler analysis algorithm and signal/noise ratio calculation.
Assessment of cardiac diseases commonly involves the use of spectral Doppler echocardiography. Its use, however, often requires manual digitization of various transvalvular flow profiles. A new approach has been developed for on-line analysis of Doppler data, which involves thresholding based on the signal/noise ratio, calculating instantaneous values, and plotting on the spectral display in real time. We examined the reliability of this new method in 32 patients with 59 various flow jets by comparing it with the data derived by manual analysis. Correlations between the algorithm analysis and manual analysis for peak velocity, peak gradient, velocity-time integral, and acceleration time were excellent. These indexes were obtained with the algorithm in a shorter time and with better reproducibility than with manual analysis. Thus this new adaptive Doppler analysis algorithm yields reliable on-line quantification of valuable hemodynamic variables and represents an advance in quantitative echocardiography.
Tardif
J C
JC
Department of Medicine, New England Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Pandian
N G
NG
Freire
M
M
Cao
Q L
QL
Pollard
H
H
D000465:Algorithms; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001024:Aortic Valve Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002302:Cardiac Output; D003626:Data Display; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006351:Heart Valves / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008944:Mitral Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008946:Mitral Valve Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D009862:Online Systems; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted