Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Ultrason Imaging. 2012 Jul;34(3):129-41. doi: 10.1177/0161734612455580.
The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of using echocardiographic imaging as an approach for determining the myocardial fiber structure of intact, individual hearts. Seven formalin-fixed, ex vivo sheep hearts were imaged using a commercially available echocardiographic imaging system, and the intrinsic fiber structure for the reconstructed short-axis cross section was determined for a specific distance from the apex of each heart. Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance (DT-MR) images of each heart were acquired and fiber maps were created for comparison with the fiber structure obtained from the corresponding reconstructed echocardiographic images. These two methods of obtaining the fiber structure showed relatively good agreement, suggesting that measurements of fiber orientation for individual hearts can be derived from echocardiographic images. Further development of this method may provide a clinically useful approach for mapping the fiber orientation in individual patients over the heart cycle.
本研究旨在评估超声心动图成像作为一种确定完整、个体心脏心肌纤维结构的方法的可行性。使用商业上可用的超声心动图成像系统对 7 个福尔马林固定的离体羊心进行成像，并确定每个心脏心尖特定距离处的重建短轴横截面的固有纤维结构。获取每个心脏的扩散张量磁共振（DT-MR）图像，并创建纤维图谱以与从相应重建的超声心动图图像获得的纤维结构进行比较。这两种获取纤维结构的方法显示出相对较好的一致性，表明可以从超声心动图图像中得出个体心脏纤维方向的测量值。该方法的进一步发展可能为在心脏周期内对个体患者的纤维方向进行映射提供一种临床有用的方法。
