Echocardiographic measurement of right ventricular volume.

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Abstract
The volume of the right ventricle can be determined angiographically from its projections in 2 mutually perpendicular planes. Echocardiographic techniques for measuring right ventricular volume, however, were more difficult and less successful. A method was developed for calculating right ventricular volume from 2 intersecting cross-sectional echocardiographic views; the apical 4-chamber and subcostal right ventricular outflow tract views. First, the areas and lengths of casts of 12 human right ventricles obtained at autopsy were directly measured in the chosen views. Actual cast volumes correlated best with a formula giving volume as 2/3 times the area in one view times the long axis in the other view. The degree of correlation was similarly high for calculations involving the area derived from either view and the length of the roughly orthogonal section. This relationship for right ventricular volume was then confirmed with 2-dimensional echocardiographic images of hollow latex molds made from the casts (r =0.95, P < 0.0001). The significance of these findings is discussed in relation to angiographic results and models of the right ventricle.