title: The accuracy and optimal slice thickness of multislice helical computed tomography for right and left ventricular volume measurement.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Multislice helical computed tomography (MSCT) has been used to depict coronary anatomy noninvasively, and proved useful for evaluating ventricular function. The aim of our study was to assess the accuracy of ventricular volume as measured by MSCT.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourteen human left ventricular (LV) and 15 right ventricular (RV) casts were scanned by MSCT. A series of LV and RV short-axis images were reconstructed later with slice thickness of 2.0 mm, 3.5 mm, 5.0 mm, 7.0 mm, and 10.0 mm. Ventricular volume was calculated by the multislice tomographic Simpson's method. True LV and RV cast volumes were determined by water displacement.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both calculated LV and RV volumes correlated highly with the corresponding true volumes (all r >0.95, P <0.01). But with slice thickness from 2.0 mm to 10.0 mm, MSCT scanning overestimated the corresponding true volume by (3.21 +/- 5.95) ml to (12.58 +/- 8.56) ml for LV and (10.22 +/- 8.45) ml to (23.91 +/- 12.24) ml for RV (all P <0.01). There was a very high correlation between the overestimation and the selected slice thickness for both LV and RV volume measurements (r=0.998 and 0.996, P <0.01, respectively). However, when slice thickness was reduced to 5.0 mm, the overestimation for both LV and RV volume measurements became nonsignificant for slice thickness from 2.0 mm to 5.0 mm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both LV and RV volumes can be accurately estimated by MSCT. Thinner slice has more accurate calculated volume. However, 5.0 mm slice thickness is thin enough for an accurate measurement of LV or RV volume.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050000, China. cuiwei@medmail.com.cn
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Anno
authors.forename: Yu-yin
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Takahisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Masayoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarai
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shinozaki
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kakizawa
authors.forename: Kouji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.forename: Keita
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oshima
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Katada
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hishida
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002306:Cardiac Volume; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036542:Tomography, Spiral Computed / Q000379:methods*