Rapid and Accurate Measurement of Left Ventricular Function with a New Second‐Harmonic Fast‐Rotating Transducer and Semi‐Automated Border Detection

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Abstract
Measurement of left ventricular (LV) volume and function are the most common clinical referral questions to the echocardiography laboratory. A fast, practical, and accurate method would offer important advantages to obtain this important information. To validate a new practical method for rapid measurement of LV volume and function. We developed a continuous fast‐rotating transducer, with second‐harmonic capabilities, for three‐dimensional echocardiography (3DE). Fifteen cardiac patients underwent both 3DE and magnetic resonance imaging (reference method) on the same day. 3DE image acquisition was performed during a 10‐second breath‐hold with a frame rate of 100 frames/sec and a rotational speed of 6 rotations/sec. The individual images were postprocessed with Matlab software using multibeat data fusion. Subsequently, with these images, 12 datasets per cardiac cycle were reconstructed, each comprising seven equidistant cross‐sectional images for analysis in the new TomTec 4DLV analysis software, which uses a semi‐automated border detection (ABD) algorithm. The ABD requires an average analysis time of 15 minutes per patient. A strong correlation was found between LV end‐diastolic volume (r = 0.99; y = 0.95x – 1.14 ml; SEE = 6.5 ml), LV end‐systolic volume (r = 0.96; y = 0.89x + 7.91 ml; SEE = 7.0 ml), and LV ejection fraction (r = 0.93; y = 0.69x + 13.36; SEE = 2.4%). Inter‐ and intraobserver agreement for all measurements was good. The fast‐rotating transducer with new ABD software is a dedicated tool for rapid and accurate analysis of LV volume and function.