Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 23, 2026
Murine Fetal Echocardiography
Published on: February 15, 2013
Image-Derived Assessment of Left Ventricular Mass in Fetal Myocardial Hypertrophy by 4-Dimensional Echocardiography:
Xin Liu1, Meihua Zhu2, Cole Streiff2
1Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon USADepartment of Ultrasound, First Central Hospital of Baoding, Baoding, China.
Objectives:
This study tested the accuracy of new 4-dimensional fetal echocardiography to evaluate left ventricular (LV) mass in an experimental model of fetal myocardial hypertrophy.
Methods:
Ten fresh rabbit hearts were studied. Fetal myocardial hypertrophy was simulated by fixing different amounts of myocardial tissue to the LV epicardium. A small latex balloon was mounted on vinyl tubing and fixed within each LV cavity. The proximal end of the tube was attached to a pulsatile pump apparatus. The pump was calibrated to deliver stroke volumes of 2 and 4 mL at stroke rates of 60 and 120 beats per minute (bpm). Four-dimensional data were acquired and analyzed with quantification software. Reference values for LV mass were determined by the displacement method.
Results:
Echo-derived measurements of LV mass showed good correlations with reference values at all stroke rates and stroke volumes: at 2 mL and 60 bpm, r = 0.95; at 2 mL and 120 bpm, r = 0.95; at 4 mL and 60 bpm, r = 0.93; and at 4 mL and 120 bpm, r = 0.95 (P< .01 for all values). There was also excellent interobserver (r = 0.98; mean difference of -0.32 g; -4.4% of the mean) and intraobserver (r = 0.98; mean difference of -0.28 g; -3.8% of the mean) agreement.
Conclusions:
In this controlled in vitro study, high-resolution 4-dimensional echocardiography was shown to accurately assess LV mass and have the potential to evaluate fetal myocardial hypertrophy.
