Estimation of right ventricular mass by two-dimensional echocardiography

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Accurate measurement of right ventricular mass (RVM) is crucial for assessing cardiac health.
• Existing methods for RVM assessment may be invasive or less precise.
• Echocardiography offers a non-invasive imaging modality with potential for RVM quantification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate two novel 2-dimensional echocardiographic methods for measuring right ventricular mass (RVM).
• To assess the accuracy and correlation of these echocardiographic methods against true RVM in animal and human subjects.

Main Methods:

• Developed a 'bullet formula' variant (5/24 pi D1 D2 L) utilizing short and long axes for RVM calculation.
• Introduced a second method using three endocardial segment lengths (b1, b2, h) applied in a specific formula (A = [(b1 + b2)/2] x h).
• Both methods involved multiplying calculated volumes/areas by myocardium density and wall thickness.

Main Results:

• The segment-based formula showed high correlation (r=0.869) with true RVM in dogs.
• The bullet formula also demonstrated good correlation (r=0.819) with true RVM in dogs.
• Similar high correlations were observed in human patients awaiting heart transplant (r=0.810 for segments, r=0.836 for bullet formula).

Conclusions:

• Two-dimensional echocardiography can satisfactorily estimate right ventricular mass (RVM).
• The developed echocardiographic methods provide a reliable means for RVM quantification.
• Linear regression analysis may yield correction factors for improved RVM calculation accuracy.