Initial study of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography for quantifying left ventricular volume in vitro

Objective To evaluate initially the feasibility and accuracy of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) for quantifying left ventricular volume in an in vitro experimental study. Methods Nineteen excised porcine hearts were examined by real-time 3DE and conventional two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography with Philips SONOS 7500 echocardiographic system. The measurement of their left ventricular volume examined by real-time 3DE was outlined and calculated by 2-plane, 4-plane, 8-plane and 16-plane method with the 4D Cardio-View RT of TOMTEC image system, and their results were compared with those of 2D biplane Simpson-method. The true volume of excised porcine left ventricle measured by water displacement was served as a reference standard. Results ”Full volume” imaging in all excised porcine hearts was well displayed by real-time 3DE. There was no significant difference ( P 0.05) between the measurements of real-time 3DE 16-plane (23.31±14.29) ml, 8-plane (23.42±14.56) ml and those of true volume of excised porcine left ventricle (23.79±14.78) ml, but there was significant difference ( P 0.05) between the measurements of real-time 3DE 2-plane (17.94± 10.46 ) ml, 2D biplane Simpson-method (19.67±13.46) ml and those of true left ventricular volume. Meanwhile,the measurements of RT-3DE 16-plane and 8-plane were high closer to those of true left ventricular volume. The correlation of real-time 3DE and 8-plane ( r =0.98, P 0.0001) with true left ventricular volume was more than that of 2DE biplane Simpson-method (r=0.89). Conclusion real-time 3DE will be a valuable and accurate technique to quantify ventricular volume.