Impact of Second Harmonic Imaging on the Determination of the Global and Regional Left Ventricular Function by 2D Echocardiography: a Comparison with MIBI Gated SPECT

Abstract

The use of SH echocardiography decreases the number of unscored segments. This results in an important gain in correlation and agreement for EF determination between echo and SPECT, and in a considerable decline of the interobserver variability for the echo-determined WMSI. WMSI determined by MIBI gated SPECT correlated closely with the SH WMSI, and agreement between both methods was excellent.

Automated border detection on contrast enhanced echocardiographic images

“…Recent advances in ultrasound technology, such as tissue harmonic imaging and echocardiographic contrast agents, have greatly increased the number of patients in whom endocardial borders are sufficiently defined to permit hand tracing for quantification of LV EF [6]. Use of tissue harmonic and contrast enhanced echocardiographic imaging has also been shown to improve the accuracy of ejection fraction determination in sub-optimal images [7][8][9].…”

Estimation of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction From Doppler Derived Myocardial Performance Index in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction:

“…However, when the EF is important for clinical decisions in patients without satisfactory image quality, the ability of MPI to indicate the level of EF is of clinical interest. With the use of harmonic imaging, contrast and three‐dimensional echocardiography, the number of patients with inferior image quality is reduced, and the reproducibility and agreement with other methods are increased 27–29 . This may reduce the need for another method to calculate EF in clinical practice.…”

Visualización del endocardio con segunda armónica

“…Los ecos que distorsionan la imagen son selectivamente eliminados cuando la imagen se realiza en la frecuencia armónica, ya que predominan las frecuencias conducidas en la parte central del haz. Esto resultará en una mejoría significativa de la imagen del estudio, y con ello las implicancias diagnósticas (13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20).…”