Automatic tablet-based monoplane quantification of stroke volume and left ventricular ejection fraction: A...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular imaging
• Medical device technology
• Point-of-care diagnostics

Background:

• Established point-of-care cardiovascular left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) quantification exists.
• Automatic tablet-based stroke volume (SV) quantification using handheld ultrasound (HAND) devices is an unexplored area.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a tablet-based monoplane LVEF and LV volume quantification tool (AutoEF).
• To compare AutoEF's LVEF and SV quantification against a computer-based tool (Tomtec).

Main Methods:

• Patients underwent handheld ultrasound (HAND) scans.
• LVEF and SV were quantified using AutoEF and computer-based software (Auto Strain-monoplane [AS-mono] and Auto Strain-biplane [AS-bi]).
• Correlation and Bland-Altman analysis were employed for comparison.

Main Results:

• AutoEF demonstrated strong correlation with AS-mono (.83) and AS-bi (.79) for LVEF.
• Correlation for SV was moderate with AS-mono (.68) and AS-bi (.66).
• Significant bias and wide limits of agreement were observed for SV quantification.

Conclusions:

• AutoEF software provides accurate and reliable LVEF quantification.
• SV quantification using AutoEF showed limitations and was not interchangeable with computer-based methods.
• Further refinement of AutoEF is necessary for dependable point-of-care SV quantification.