title: Transmural variation of myocardial attenuation measured with a clinical imager.
abstract: The objective of this study was to quantify the transmural variation in attenuation for the septal and lateral walls of the heart. Our approach was to utilize a commercially available ultrasonic imaging system to acquire images of excised sections of eight sheep hearts with an orientation similar to that encountered in the apical four-chamber view. The measured values (mean +/-SE) of the slope of attenuation for the transmural regions of the septum are: 1.40 +/-0.11, 0.99 +/-0.09, and 1.85 +/-0.16 (dB/cm/MHz) for the left subendocardial, midmyocardial, and right subendocardial zones, respectively. The analogous data from the lateral wall are: 1.42 +/-0.11, 0.83 +/-0.07, and 1.20 +/- 0.16 (dB/cm/MHz) for the subendocardial, midmyocardial, and subepicardial zones, respectively. These data demonstrate that ultrasonic attenuation associated with the septum and the lateral wall, when imaged in a manner similar to that of the apical four-chamber view, is anisotropic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Sosnovik
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D009206:Myocardium; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012756:Sheep