Ultrasound Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ultrasound, including details on screening, diagnosis, pregnancy, detection.

Quantitative real-time 3-dimensional stress echocardiography: a preliminary investigation of feasibility and effectiveness.

Walimbe V, Garcia M, Lalude O, Thomas J, Shekhar R

Biomedical Engineering Department, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

BACKGROUND: Use of rapidly emerging real-time 3-dimensional (3D) echocardiography promises to improve the diagnostic accuracy of stress echocardiography (SE). However, widespread acceptance of 3D-SE, based on real-time 3D echocardiography, is hampered in part by lack of efficient, accurate, and objective analysis tools. METHODS: We propose novel algorithms for interactive visualization, registration (alignment), and quantitative analysis of prestress and poststress real-time 3D echocardiography to facilitate an objective diagnosis. In a preliminary evaluation, two experts independently performed wall-motion analysis in 15 patients with known/suspected coronary artery disease, using the novel quantitative 3D-SE methods. RESULTS: Compared with previously reported values for conventional 2-dimensional SE, improved interexpert agreement (kappa = 0.85) was observed for segment-wise classification of normal/abnormal wall motion using the novel 3D-SE methods. Overall, 6 of 6 patients with abnormal myocardial segments were correctly identified by both experts with 3D-SE, compared with 4 of 6 with conventional 2-dimensional SE. CONCLUSION: Initial results are promising and indicate the feasibility and potential of our proposed quantitative 3D-SE methodologies for improving diagnosis of wall-motion abnormalities.

Published 12 January 2007 in J Am Soc Echocardiogr, 20(1): 13-22.
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