Fast data acquisition and analysis with real time triplane echocardiography for the assessment of left ventricular...

To assess accuracy and reproducibility of real time simultaneous triplane echocardiography (RT3PE) for the assessment of left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) as a reference method.

A total of 24 patients with various degrees of LV dysfunction (EF from 36 to 57%) in sinus rhythm with good image quality were enrolled in the study. Digital loops of apical views were recorded with standard two-dimensional imaging and with RT3PE. Echocardiography and CMR were performed within 1 hour. RT3PE measurements of LV end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, and EF resulted closely correlated to CMR (r = 0.95, 0.97, and 0.95, respectively) with small biases (-4 ml, -6 ml, and 1%, respectively) and narrow limits of agreement (SD = 15 ml, 12 ml, and 6%, respectively). Two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) showed a weaker correlation with CMR (r = 0.85, 0.91, and 0.83, respectively; P < 0.06) with similar biases (-4 ml, -10 ml, 5%, respectively), but wider limits of agreement (SD = 28 ml, 21 ml, 10%, respectively, P < 0.007). RT3PE showed lower interobserver variability for the assessment of EF (SD = 2% vs. 5%, P = 0.03) and lower measurement time of LV EF (175 +/- 54 sec vs. 241 +/- 49 sec, respectively; P < 0.0001), as compared to 2DE.

RT3PE allows simple and fast image acquisition and volume calculation. In addition, it allows more accurate and reproducible EF measurements than conventional 2DE.