Evaluation of left ventricular volume using automatic border detection in children: a comparison with conventional off-line echocardiographic quantification.
BACKGROUND
Evaluation of the clinical usefulness of the one-line automatic border detection system for determination of left ventricular volume in children in comparison to the conventional off-line method.


METHODS
Eighty consecutive patients in whom clear images were obtained by two-dimensional echocardiography were studied. Using the Hewlett-Packard Sonos 2500 with a 3.5 or 5.5 Mhz phased array transducer, all patients were studied in the apical four-chamber imaging plane for automatic border detection and apical four-chamber and two-chamber imaging planes for manual tracing. Left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were measured and compared using the bi-plane Simpson method.


RESULTS
Left ventricular end-diastolic volumes obtained by automatic border detection correlated well but were slightly underestimated compared to those obtained by manual tracing (r = 0.98). Left ventricular end-systolic volumes obtained by automatic border detection also correlated well with those obtained by manual tracing (r = 0.96). Left ventricular ejection fractions compared favorably. However, left ventricular volumes obtained using the classical Pombo M-mode echocardiography showed poorer correlation with those obtained by manual tracing methods.


CONCLUSIONS
Automatic border detection is a promising method for real-time estimation of left ventricular volume. In patients with good endocardial tracking, automatic border detection can be used for routine studies of cardiovascular disease, even in children.
Hashimoto
I
I
Department of Pediatrics, Toyama Municipal Hospital, Japan.
Ichida
F
F
Miura
M
M
Okabe
T
T
Shimura
S
S
Uese
K
K
Hamamichi
Y
Y
Tsubata
S
S
Miyawaki
T
T
Fukahara
K
K
Murakami
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*