Right Ventricular Longitudinal Strain Reproducibility Using Vendor-Dependent and Vendor-Independent Software

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Echocardiography

Background:

• Right ventricular peak systolic longitudinal strain (RVLS) quantifies right ventricular function in conditions like pulmonary hypertension.
• Vendor-specific software (VSS) limitations in RVLS analysis may lead to systematic differences.
• Reproducibility of RVLS analysis across different software is crucial for clinical application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the reproducibility of RVLS analysis using vendor-specific software (VSS) and vendor-independent software (VIS).
• To evaluate differences in RVLS measurements obtained from different ultrasound scanners and software.
• To determine the impact of vendor and software on RVLS measurements in clinical and multicenter trial settings.

Main Methods:

• Prospective, single-center study involving 35 patients (5 healthy, 30 with pulmonary hypertension).
• Two echocardiographic scans performed using GE and Philips ultrasound systems.
• RVLS analysis conducted using both VSS and VIS (TomTec) software; repeated-measures ANOVA used for statistical assessment.

Main Results:

• Global RVLS measurements showed no statistically significant differences among VSS packages.
• Some differences were observed between VSS and VIS for global strains.
• Significant variability noted in regional peak strain measurements, but without systematic differences.

Conclusions:

• Global RVLS values are comparable between VSS systems but may differ slightly from VIS.
• Widespread variability exists in regional strain analysis between VSS and VIS, lacking clear systematic differences.
• RVLS analysis demonstrates potential for consistent global measurements across VSS, but regional analysis requires further investigation for standardization.