Comparison between Handheld Echocardiography and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance for Stroke Volume and Left Ventricular...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Background:

• Accurate stroke volume (SV) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) are crucial for managing hemodynamically compromised patients.
• Handheld echocardiography (HHE) devices are increasingly available for clinical use.
• The comparative performance of HHE against the gold standard, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, for SV and LVEF quantification remains largely unestablished.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy and precision of HHE for quantifying SV and LVEF.
• To compare the performance of HHE against standard echocardiography (SE) and CMR imaging.
• To determine the clinical utility of HHE in hemodynamic assessment.

Main Methods:

• Twenty healthy volunteers underwent imaging using HHE, SE, and CMR.
• Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and stroke volume (SV) were measured across all three modalities.
• Statistical analysis focused on bias and limits of agreement (LOA) between HHE/SE and CMR.

Main Results:

• HHE demonstrated minimal bias (-0.21%) and comparable LOA (11.24%) for LVEF compared to CMR.
• SV measurements by HHE showed a bias of 29.85 ml and LOA of 32.34 ml against CMR.
• The accuracy and precision of HHE were found to be similar to those of SE when compared to CMR.

Conclusions:

• Handheld echocardiography (HHE) provides accurate and precise measurements of LVEF and SV.
• HHE performance is comparable to standard echocardiography (SE) when assessed against cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR).
• HHE is a potentially valuable tool for point-of-care hemodynamic assessment.