Evaluation of left ventricular volume using automatic border detection in children: a comparison with conventional
I Hashimoto1, F Ichida, M Miura
1Department of Pediatrics, Toyama Municipal Hospital, Japan.
Background:
Evaluation of the clinical usefulness of the one-line automatic border detection system for determination of left ventricular volume in children in comparison to the conventional off-line method.
Methods:
Eighty consecutive patients in whom clear images were obtained by two-dimensional echocardiography were studied. Using the Hewlett-Packard Sonos 2500 with a 3.5 or 5.5 Mhz phased array transducer, all patients were studied in the apical four-chamber imaging plane for automatic border detection and apical four-chamber and two-chamber imaging planes for manual tracing. Left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were measured and compared using the bi-plane Simpson method.
Results:
Left ventricular end-diastolic volumes obtained by automatic border detection correlated well but were slightly underestimated compared to those obtained by manual tracing (r = 0.98). Left ventricular end-systolic volumes obtained by automatic border detection also correlated well with those obtained by manual tracing (r = 0.96). Left ventricular ejection fractions compared favorably. However, left ventricular volumes obtained using the classical Pombo M-mode echocardiography showed poorer correlation with those obtained by manual tracing methods.
Conclusions:
Automatic border detection is a promising method for real-time estimation of left ventricular volume. In patients with good endocardial tracking, automatic border detection can be used for routine studies of cardiovascular disease, even in children.
