Correlation between Volumes Determined by Echocardiography and Cardiac MRI in Controls and Atrial Fibrillation...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Cardiac volume assessment is crucial for diagnosing and managing cardiovascular conditions, including atrial fibrillation (AF).
• Echocardiography (echo) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are primary imaging modalities for evaluating cardiac structure and function.
• Direct comparison of these techniques in a mixed cohort of AF patients and healthy controls is essential to understand their relative strengths and limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the accuracy of echocardiography (echo) versus cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in measuring cardiac volumes.
• To assess the agreement between echo and MRI in a cohort including healthy controls and patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).
• To determine the potential of echocardiography as a substitute for MRI in specific clinical scenarios.

Main Methods:

• A total of 123 subjects (99 with complete datasets) underwent clinical evaluation, EKG, echo, and cardiac MRI.
• Participants were categorized into AF patients and healthy controls for volumetric analysis.
• Left atrial volume (LA Vol), left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LV EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), and LV ejection fraction (LV EF) were calculated using both echo and MRI.

Main Results:

• No significant difference was found in left atrial volume (LA Vol) measurements between echo and MRI (p > 0.05).
• Echocardiography yielded significantly lower left ventricular volumes compared to MRI (p < 0.0001).
• Strong correlations were observed for LA Vol (r = 0.83), LV EDV (r = 0.51-0.71), and LV ESV (r = 0.47-0.66) between the two methods, with a bias favoring echo for smaller ventricular volumes (<49.50 mL).

Conclusions:

• Echocardiography demonstrates good correlation and reduced bias for LA Vol and LV EF compared to cardiac MRI in AF patients and controls.
• For ventricular volumes below 49.50 mL, echo shows excellent correlation and reduced bias, suggesting its utility as an alternative to MRI.
• Echocardiography presents a potentially less expensive, faster, and safer alternative to MRI for cardiac volume determination in select patient populations.