Semiautomatic quantification of left ventricular function by two-dimensional feature tracking imaging echocardiography. A comparison study with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the accuracy of a semiautomatic quantification of left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) using two-dimensional (2D) feature tracking imaging (FTI).


METHODS
Thirty-four consecutive subjects (11 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, 13 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and 10 subjects with no cardiac disease) underwent, on the same day, trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) examination, FTI, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as gold standard, in order to quantify LV volumes and EF. The echocardiographic quantification of LV volumes and EF was determined from four- and two-chamber views using both standard TTE Biplane Simpson's method and a semiautomatic border detection based on FTI. Furthermore, the time for data analysis for each method was measured.


RESULTS
The time required for semiautomatic analysis of volumes and EF was significantly lower (P < 0.0001) by FTI (71 seconds) in comparison with standard biplane Simpson's method (93 seconds). LV volumes obtained by FTI were significant underestimated (P < 0.001) in comparison with MRI. Bland-Altman analysis of EDV and ESV using FTI and cardiac MRI showed a low level of agreement for EDV (mean difference = 40.8; SD = 39) and ESV (mean difference = 38.1; SD = 42). On the contrary, no significant difference between FTI and MRI in assessing the LVEF was found; furthermore, a very low bias (2 ± 12) by Bland-Altman analysis was found between FTI and cardiac MRI for the quantification of EF.


CONCLUSIONS
Semiautomatic quantification of LV volumes using FTI allows an accurate, rapid, easy and reliable assessment of LV EF and a rough estimation of LV volumes.
Di Bella
Gianluca
G
Clinical and Experimental Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Messina, Messina, Italy. gianluca.dibella@tiscali.it
Zito
Concetta
C
Gaeta
Michele
M
Cusmà Piccione
Maurizio
M
Minutoli
Fabio
F
Donato
Rocco
R
Recupero
Antonino
A
Madaffari
Antonio
A
Coglitore
Sebastiano
S
Carerj
Scipione
S
D000465:Algorithms; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000175:diagnosis*