Female gender and presence of cardiac disease were associated with a larger extent of underestimation. Table 1 Differences between left ventricular volumes and function assessed by three-dimensional echocardiography and conventional two-dimensional echocardiography in comparison with cardiac magnetic resonance As a rule, good image quality is a prerequisite for an accurate quantitation of global LV function

using semi- or automated border detection algorithms. A manual editing of the automatically-identified endocardial surface may be required in order to ensure an accurate Ulixertinib datasheet quantitative analysis, particularly in patients with suboptimal image quality.2),20) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Some authors reported that LV volume measurements by 3DE are less when less than 60% of the endocardial border is visualized;21) in this setting, the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical use of contrast may improve the accuracy and reproducibility of measurements.22),23)

Simultaneous LV shape analysis (i.e. 3D sphericity index) is provided from the endocardial 3D surface reconstruction: as the LV becomes more globular, the sphericity index approaches unity. In patients with acute myocardial infarction, 3DE derived sphericity index has been demonstrated to be an earlier and more accurate predictor of LV remodeling than other clinical, electrocardiographic, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and echocardiographic variables.24) By adding an automated detection of the LV epicardial surface and applying 3D speckle-tracking analysis within the LV myocardial wall delimited between the endocardial and epicardial surfaces, additional parameters can be obtained from the same 3D data set: LV mass (Fig. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 9), as well as myocardial deformation components (longitudinal, circumferential, radial and area strain) (Fig. 10). Fig. 9 Left ventricular mass measurement

using three-dimensional echocardiography. Using automated or Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical semi-automated endocardial and epicardial boundary detection endocardial and epicardial volumes are measured (A). By subtracting the left ventricular cavity … Fig. 10 Three-dimensional speckle-tracking analysis of left ventricular longitudinal myocardial deformation using two different platforms. Results can be displayed as bull’s eye plots (A) and/or time-strain curves (B). Left ventricular mass calculations by M-mode and 2DE are subject to the same limitations 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase in reproducibility and accuracy affecting LV size and function. Several comparative studies (Table 2)4),16),18),25-30) have proven that 3DE is more accurate than M-mode or 2DE methods to calculate LV mass when CMR was used as reference standard. Inter-observer and test/re-test reproducibility were also improved by the 3DE approach.4) More accurate measurements of LV mass may facilitate its use as a surrogate outcome marker in trials involving antihypertensive medications.