Improved assessment of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction by contrast enhanced harmonic color Doppler echocardiography.
OBJECTIVE
Test the accuracy of contrast enhanced harmonic color Doppler technique (CHCD) to determine left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction (LVEF) compared to equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography (MUGA).


RESULTS
A total of 35 patients were enrolled (male 74.3%) with the mean age of 64.5 +/- 10 years and 6.8 +/- 4.9 days between echo and MUGA scans. The correlation of LVEF by CHCD with MUGA was better (R2 = 0.89) than that of harmonic 2D (H2D) and of contrast enhanced harmonic 2D (CH2D) (R2 = 0.74, R2 = 0.82, respectively). The RMS residual of CHCD (0.056) was smaller than that of H2D and CH2D (0.079, 0.067, respectively). The LVED and LVES volumes by H2D, CH2D and CHCD correlate well with MUGA but there was a significant over estimation of LVED and LVES volumes by H2D and CH2D as compared to MUGA. Also, the RMS residuals were the lowest for the CHCD method. The CHCD had the highest mean inter-observer agreement (90.9%) for LVEF compared with H2D and CH2D (78.9% and 88.1%, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
CHCD has been feasible in all patients in the present study and it has shown a good concordance with ejection fraction and volumes provided by MUGA.
Bezante
Gian Paolo
GP
Cardiology Unit, DI.M.I., University of Genova, Genova, Italy. gpb001@cardio.dimi.unige.it
Rosa
Gian Marco
GM
Bruni
Riccardo
R
Chen
Xucai
X
Villa
Giuseppe
G
Scopinaro
Alice
A
Balbi
Manrico
M
Barsotti
Antonio
A
Schwarz
Karl Q
KQ
D000368:Aged; D002306:Cardiac Volume; D003287:Contrast Media; D003971:Diastole; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D015637:Gated Blood-Pool Imaging; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000502:physiology*; D013599:Systole; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*
D003287:Contrast Media