Comparison of echocardiographic acoustic quantification system and radionuclide ventriculography for estimating left ventricular ejection fraction: validation in patients without regional wall motion abnormalities.
Echocardiographic automated border detection of blood-endocardium interface is made on the basis of the principle of acoustic quantification. The automated border system is capable of providing on-line left ventricular (LV) cavity area and function. Recently, ABD algorithms have been devised to estimate LV volume on line from a long-axis image, calculated by established area-length method or Simpson's formula. To test the clinical validity of this newly developed echocardiographic method, LV volumes and ejection fraction measured by real-time acoustic quantification were compared with radionuclide ejection fraction in 24 subjects on the same day. Patients were included in the study if > or = 75% of their endocardium was visualized with conventional two-dimensional echocardiography. Sixteen (66%) of 24 patients had a technically adequate conventional echocardiogram with a broad range of ventricular dimensions and systolic function. None of the study patients had regional wall motion abnormalities. Echocardiographic measurements were obtained from the LV apical four-chamber, long-axis view. Ejection fraction, determined by the acoustic quantification and by radionuclide ventriculography, showed a strong linear relation (r = 0.92, standard error of the estimate = 4.4, p < 0.05). However, acoustic quantification overestimated the radionuclide ejection fraction with rather wide limits of agreement (3.8% +/- 16.4%; bias +/- 2 SD). Thus echocardiographic automated border detection technique is a reasonably accurate method for on-line assessment of LV function.
Chandra
S
S
Department of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Bahl
V K
VK
Reddy
S C
SC
Bhargava
B
B
Malhotra
A
A
Wasir
H S
HS
D000328:Adult; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D015637:Gated Blood-Pool Imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left