Real-time 3-dimensional Doppler echocardiography for the assessment of stroke volume: an in vivo human study compared with standard 2-dimensional echocardiography.
BACKGROUND
Invasive monitors and noninvasive 2-dimensional echocardiography are the standard clinical methods for stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output computation. We studied the use of real-time color Doppler 3-dimensional (3D) echocardiography (3DE) for the assessment of SV in human beings.


METHODS
In all, 55 pediatric and adult patients with good transthoracic windows and a normal aortic valve were studied. Real-time 3DE color Doppler volumes incorporating the left ventricular outflow tract and aortic valve were taken. SV was calculated from the color Doppler data in the 3DE DICOM dataset. This was compared with 2-dimensional echocardiography SV calculation from the pulsed wave velocity through the aortic valve along with the left ventricular outflow tract diameter.


RESULTS
Five patients were excluded because of mismatching of the 3D color Doppler segments in the 3D volume. The 3D Doppler volumes from the remaining 50 patients were analyzed. There was good correlation between the patients' averaged 3DE SV calculations and the 2-dimensional echocardiography pulsed wave SV estimation (y = 0.84x + 7.8, r2 = 0.90).


CONCLUSIONS
Real-time 3D Doppler echocardiography can be used to accurately calculate SV and cardiac output, compared with conventional pulsed Doppler measurement, in pediatric and adult patients from transthoracic imaging.
Pemberton
James
J
Clinical Care Center for Congenital Heart Disease, Department of Cardiology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA.
Li
Xiaokui
X
Kenny
Antoinette
A
Davies
Crispin H
CH
Minette
Mary S
MS
Sahn
David J
DJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002302:Cardiac Output; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003199:Computer Systems; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods*; D019560:Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013318:Stroke Volume; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*