[Assessment of left ventricular ejection fraction by echocardiography]

A new simplified echocardiography method to assess left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF), combining routine M-mode and 2-D echo, was used to measure LV size and evaluate regional wall motion. Echocardiography was performed prior to cardiac catheterization in 35 patients aged 38-69 years (mean 53+8 years). Of these, 14 had suffered an anterior myocardial infarction. At catheterization three patients had ventricular extrasystoles and were omitted from data analysis. The new echo method is a simplification of a model used by Quinones et al. Furthermore, the same measurements were also used to calculate EF by the cube, Teichholz, ellipse, and bullet methods. Compared to the average EF determined by LV angiography of 58±17%, EF by the above echocardiography methods in the same respective order was 58±16, 70±14 (p<0.001), 61±15 (p<0.05), 62±13 (p<0.01) and 62±13% (p<0.01), respectively. The respective correlations (r-values) with angiography were 0.93, 0.87, 0.87, 0.91 and 0.91. Thus, compared with LV angiography the new simplified echocardiography method showed the best agreement and correlation, while other methods compared less favorably.