Veronesi F, Corsi C, Caiani E G, Sarti A, Lamberti C
Bioengineering Department, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy.
IEEE Trans Inf Technol Biomed. 2006 Jan;10(1):174-81. doi: 10.1109/titb.2005.855535.
Two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) is routinely used in clinical practice to measure left ventricular (LV) mass, dimensions, and function. The reliability of these measurements is highly dependent on the ability to obtain nonforeshortened long axis (LA) images of the left ventricle from transthoracic apical acoustic windows. Real time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE) is a novel imaging technique that allows the acquisition of dynamic pyramidal data structures encompassing the entire ventricle and could potentially overcome the effects of LA foreshortening. Accordingly, the aim of this paper was to develop a nearly automated method based on optical flow techniques for the measurement of the left ventricular (LV) LA throughout the cardiac cycle from RT3DE data. The LV LA measurements obtained with the automated technique has been compared with LA measurements derived from manual selection of the LA from a volumetric display of RT3DE data. High correlation (r = .99, SEE = 1.8%, y = .94x + 5.3), no significant bias (-0.18 mm), and narrow limits of agreement (SD: 1.91 mm) were found. The comparison between the LA length derived from 2DE and RT3DE data showed significant underestimation of the 2DE based measurements. In conclusion, this study proves that RT3DE data overcome the effects of foreshortening and indicates that the method we propose allows fast and accurate quantification of LA length throughout the cardiac cycle.
二维超声心动图（2DE）在临床实践中常用于测量左心室（LV）质量、尺寸和功能。这些测量的可靠性高度依赖于从经胸心尖声学窗口获取左心室无缩短长轴（LA）图像的能力。实时三维超声心动图（RT3DE）是一种新型成像技术，可获取包含整个心室的动态金字塔形数据结构，并有可能克服LA缩短的影响。因此，本文的目的是开发一种基于光流技术的近乎自动化的方法，用于从RT3DE数据测量心动周期中左心室（LV）的LA。将自动技术获得的LV LA测量值与从RT3DE数据的容积显示中手动选择LA得出的LA测量值进行了比较。结果发现两者具有高度相关性（r = 0.99，SEE = 1.8%，y = 0.94x + 5.3），无显著偏差（-0.18 mm），一致性界限狭窄（SD：1.91 mm）。2DE和RT3DE数据得出的LA长度比较显示，基于2DE的测量值明显低估。总之，本研究证明RT3DE数据克服了缩短的影响，并表明我们提出的方法能够在心动周期中快速准确地量化LA长度。
