Fast measurement of left ventricular mass with real-time three-dimensional echocardiography: comparison with magnetic...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Echocardiography
• Medical Diagnostics

Background:

• Left ventricular (LV) mass is a critical predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, particularly in hypertensive patients.
• Traditional 2D echocardiography faces limitations in accurately measuring LV mass due to difficulties in obtaining optimal apical views.
• Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) serves as a benchmark for LV mass assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of real-time 3D (RT3D) echocardiography for LV mass measurement compared to 2D echocardiography and CMR.
• To assess the impact of RT3D imaging on reducing measurement variability.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of echocardiographic and CMR data from 21 patients.
• Acquisition of 2D and RT3D echocardiographic datasets.
• Offline selection of non-foreshortened apical views from RT3D datasets for LV mass calculation using the biplane method of disks.
• Comparison of LV mass measurements between 2D echo, RT3D echo, and CMR.

Main Results:

• RT3D echocardiography yielded larger LV long-axis dimensions and LV mass measurements that correlated better with CMR (r=0.90) than 2D echocardiography (r=0.79).
• 2D echocardiography significantly underestimated LV mass (39% bias), while RT3D showed minimal bias (3%).
• RT3D significantly reduced interobserver (37% to 7%) and intraobserver (19% to 8%) variability compared to 2D methods.

Conclusions:

• Real-time 3D echocardiography enables accurate and reliable measurement of left ventricular mass.
• RT3D imaging overcomes the limitations of 2D echocardiography in LV mass assessment.
• The improved accuracy and reduced variability of RT3D make it a valuable tool for cardiovascular assessment.