Three-dimensional echocardiography for quantitative left ventricular wall motion analysis: a method for...

A method for quantitative LV wall motion analysis based on 3-D reconstruction of the LV endocardial surface is presented. The reconstruction is based on a minimum of three transthoracic apical 2-D cineloops of the LV, digitally transferred from the ultrasound scanner to a computer. Images are obtained by rotating the transducer around the LV long axis. Endocardial borders are traced with an automatic edge detection algorithm with manual correction. These borders are used with a specially designed computer algorithm for reconstruction of LV cavity 3-D shape, and LV volumes, ejection fraction, and endocardial surface area can be determined. The end-diastolic and end-systolic endocardial surfaces are compared for analysis of regional wall motion. A threshold value is selected to discriminate between normal and abnormal wall motion. Regional wall motion abnormalities are displayed in a bull's eye plot, and the corresponding endocardial surface area is expressed in percent of the total endocardial area. Phase analysis is performed from reconstruction of the endocardial surface throughout the cardiac cycle, and displays regions with abnormal wall motion as being out of phase with LV volume variation. Thus, LV 3-D reconstruction performed by this method can be used for quantitative analysis of wall motion in several clinical situations, and due to the simplicity of processing the data, can be useful outside the research laboratory.