Three‐Dimensional Echocardiography‐derived strain values acquired by a novel analysis program

Abstract

Objective This in vitro study calculated longitudinal strain (LS) from different ultrasound systems (GE Vivid E9 and Philips IE 33) before and after myocardial infarct (MI) using a vendor‐independent analysis software package (TomTec's 4D LV Analysis) to validate the variation of two ultrasound systems. Methods Ten freshly harvested porcine hearts were passively driven by a pulsatile pump apparatus at stroke volumes (SV) 30–70 mL. Full‐volume three‐dimensional echocardiography (3DE) data were acquired before and after MI using two different ultrasound systems. LS was derived from TomTec and validated against sonomicrometry data. Results Linear regression analyses showed excellent correlations between TomTec‐calculated LS values and sonomicrometry data for both normal and simulated MI groups (GE: R2 = 0.72/0.68, Philip: R2 = 0.71/0.66). Bland‐Altman analyses demonstrated overestimation of echo‐derived strain values for all groups. Both ultrasound system‐derived strain values demonstrated decreased LS after MI, and the average change in strain after infarct was roughly 30% in GE images and 25% in Philips images. Conclusions Both GE and Philips echocardiographic systems can be analyzed with TomTec's program, and these images correlated well with sonomicrometry with acceptable variations.

Reference Values of Right Ventricular Volumes and Ejection Fraction by Three-Dimensional Echocardiography in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The variability in references values of RV volumes and RVEF by 3DE identified by the current study is probably due to differences in populations as well as echocardiographic vendors and analytical software ( 48 ). The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging stated that even if the inter-vendor and inter-software variability of advanced echocardiographic parameters are recognized, a similar variability of some standard echocardiographic parameters cannot be excluded a priori ( 49 ).…”