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.
Department of Pediatrics, Toyama Municipal Hospital, Japan.
I
I
Hashimoto
F
F
Ichida
M
M
Miura
T
T
Okabe
S
S
Shimura
K
K
Uese
Y
Y
Hamamichi
S
S
Tsubata
T
T
Miyawaki
K
K
Fukahara
A
A
Murakami
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*