Acquisition and measurement of left ventricular (LV) volumes with a three-dimensional data set of cine magnetic resonance (MR) images from apex to base is a time-consuming process. Results of a study with 10 healthy volunteers and 10 patients with LV hypertrophy were prospectively evaluated. The heart was shown in the anatomic short- and horizontal long-axis planes with cine MR imaging. LV volumes were measured with various geometric models, and ejection fractions were calculated. In both groups, the values of LV stroke volume obtained with a modified Simpson rule and biplane ellipsoid models correlated well to the analysis of the three-dimensional data set of cine MR images. There were no significant differences for the calculated ejection fraction between values obtained with the modified Simpson rule or the biplane ellipsoid model versus the three-dimensional data set. A high inter-observer reproducibility of cine MR measurements with the two former models was found. Therefore, modified Simpson rule and biplane ellipsoid models, with their shorter acquisition and processing times, may increase the clinical utility of cine MR imaging.

For sonographic assessment of the endometrium in postmenopausal women, measurement of the maximum thickness is used in many cases as the sole criterion. The cut-off values stated in the literature, however, vary considerably. This prospective study examined 200 female patients in order to ascertain the value of echomorphology in addition to endometrial biometry. Up to an overall endometrial thickness of 3 mm, we observed only histologies without any pathological findings, whereas from an endometrial thickness of 10 mm upwards, only polyps, hyperplasias and carcinomas were found. In more than a third of our patients, the endometrial thickness was between 3 and 10 mm where the structure of the endometrium could reflect the possible histological finding: homogeneity, low echo and a sonographically depictable central echo between symmetrical endometrial leaves were an indication for absence of pathological findings, whereas heterogeneity and high echogenicity were pointers for pathological changes. In contrast to the sole measurement of endometrial thickness in the postmenopause, the combined metric and morphological parameters improve not only the predictability of pathological findings but, above all, the selectivity of the vaginosonographic assessment of the endometrium in postmenopausal women.

No abstract

No abstract

Prenatal volumetry is time-consuming, but reliable especially for left MM and brain volume. Linear growth of brain and liver volume is present in utero irrespective of CHD. Application of our reference graphs of MM growth allows early differentiation in CHD.