Transmural variation of myocardial attenuation measured with a clinical imager.
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.
Sosnovik
D E
DE
Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Baldwin
S L
SL
Lewis
S H
SH
Holland
M R
MR
Miller
J G
JG
D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D009206:Myocardium; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012756:Sheep