Assessment of left ventricular cardiac shape by the use of volumetric curvature analysis from 3D echocardiography

A method for three-dimensional shape analysis of left ventricle (LV) is pre sented in this article. The method uses three-dimensional transesophageal e chocardiography (TEE) as the source to derive the 3D wire-frame model and t he related shape descriptors. The shape descriptors developed in this artic le include regional surface changing (RSC), global surface curvature (GSC), surface distance (SD), normalized surface distance (ND), and effective rad ius (ER) of the endocardial surface. Based on these shape descriptors, the shape of LV could be sketched in both static and dynamic manner. The result s show that the new approach provides a robust but easy method to quantify regional and global LV shape from 2D and 3D echocardiograms. (C) 1999 Elsev ier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.