LEFT-VENTRICULAR MASS ASSESSED BY 3-DIMENSIONAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY USING ROTATIONAL ACQUISITION

Background: The reproducibility of left ventricular (LV) mass measurem ent by two-dimensional (2-D) echocardiography is inadequate for indivi dual assessments. Hypothesis: This study was undertaken to evaluate th e potential of LV mass determination with a new three-dimensional (3-D ) echocardiographic method compared with 2-D measurements. Methods: Po t-cine agarose-filled left ventricles (n = 15, true mass 61-511 g) of different shapes were measured by a multiplane 3-D method based on 90 images acquired by probe rotation axis (1) perpendicular and (2) paral lel to the ventricular long axis [''parasternal'' (the left sternal bo rder was not present as a reference point in this study) and apical vi ews]. Mass was also obtained using (3) the biplane truncated ellipsoid and (4) area-length methods, as well as (5) the modified cube formula . Five hearts were not analyzed with the apical 3-D technique because of insufficient image quality. Results: Systematic deviation from true mass was small with all methods (<5.3%). Accuracy, expressed as 1 sta ndard deviation of individual estimates around this systematic bias, w as 7.7, 13.6, 8.2, 11.9, and 11.9% of true mass for the methods 1-5, r espectively. Interobserver reproducibility, expressed as the coefficie nt of variation, was 4.7, 8.8, 8.1, 8.9, and 9.4% for the same methods .Conclusion: Limits fur individual accuracy and reproducibility of LV mass estimates are nearly doubled using apical compared with ''paraste rnal'' 3-D echocardiography in vitro. A main advantage of ''parasterna l'' 3-D compared with 2-D LV mass estimates is better reproducibility, but at the expense of greater time consumption. Apical 3-D technique is not superior to simpler 2-D methods based on ''parasternal'' short axis imaging.