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Published on: February 16, 2016
Reproducibility of left and right ventricular mass measurements with cardiac CT
Florian Schwarz1, Richard Takx, U Joseph Schoepf
1Heart and Vascular Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29401, USA.
Insights
Cardiac CT accurately quantifies left ventricular (LV) mass with high reproducibility. Right ventricular (RV) mass measurements show good reproducibility, though further optimization is needed for this cardiac chamber.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Imaging
- Radiology
- Medical Physics
Background:
- Cardiac CT offers volumetric data crucial for myocardial characterization.
- Accurate ventricular mass quantification is essential for diagnosing and managing cardiac conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reproducibility of left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) mass quantification using cardiac CT.
- Assessed intraobserver, interobserver, and interstudy variability in mass measurements.
Main Methods:
- Thirty-eight patients underwent two cardiac CT scans within 365 days.
- Semiautomatic contour detection was employed for LV and RV mass calculation across cardiac phases.
- Two observers performed repeated measurements for each study.
Main Results:
- LV mass quantification demonstrated excellent intraobserver (r=1.00), interobserver (r=0.99), and interstudy (r=0.99) reproducibility.
- RV mass measurements showed good reproducibility (r=0.78, r=0.78, r=0.68).
- Average end-diastolic LV mass was consistent between studies (146.2g vs 146.8g).
Conclusions:
- Cardiac CT with semiautomatic segmentation provides highly reproducible and observer-independent LV mass quantification.
- The method is largely reproducible for RV mass, but requires further refinement.
- This technique supports reliable ventricular mass assessment in clinical practice.
Background:
Cardiac CT provides volumetric data that enables characterization of the myocardium.
Objective:
We evaluated intraobserver, interobserver, and interstudy reproducibility of left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) mass quantification with cardiac CT.
Methods:
Thirty-eight patients who underwent cardiac CT twice within 365 days were included in this analysis. Functional reconstructions in 10% steps throughout the R-R interval and axial 1.5-mm sections were used. Semiautomatic contour detection was used to trace epicardial and endocardial borders in all cardiac phases for calculation of LV and RV ejection fraction, end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, cardiac output, stroke volume, and ventricular mass. For each study 2 observers measured LV and RV mass twice.
Results:
LV mass parameters derived from semiautomatic contour detection algorithm had excellent intraobserver (r = 1.00), interobserver (r = 0.99), and interstudy (r = 0.99) reproducibility (P < 0.0001). Average end-diastolic LV mass was 146.2 ± 42.9 g at the first CT study and 146.8 ± 44.4 g at the second study. For measuring RV mass, reproducibility was good on all levels (r = 0.78, r = 0.78, and r = 0.68, respectively, with an average end-diastolic mass of 25.7 ± 5.8 g at the first study and 24.4 ± 4.8 g at the second study.
Conclusion:
Quantification of LV mass at cardiac CT with the threshold-based, region-growing semiautomatic segmentation analysis software evaluated here is highly observer independent and reproducible. This largely holds true for the estimation of RV mass as well; however, further improvements are needed to optimize reproducibility for RV mass quantification.
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