Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 6, 2022; 10(13): 4050-4063
Published online May 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i13.4050
Three-dimensional echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular volume in different heart diseases using a fully automated quantification software
Chen-Ke Pan, Bo-Wen Zhao, Xuan-Xuan Zhang, Mei Pan, Yan-Kai Mao, Yuan Yang
Chen-Ke Pan, Bo-Wen Zhao, Mei Pan, Yan-Kai Mao, Yuan Yang, Department of Diagnostic Ultrasound and Echocardiography, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China
Chen-Ke Pan, Xuan-Xuan Zhang, Department of Ultrasound, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University College of Medicine, Yiwu 322200, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Pan CK collected and analyzed the data, wrote the paper; Zhao BW designed and oversight the study; Zhang XX assisted with data analysis; Pan M, Mao YK and Yang Y was involved with data collection; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Sir Run Run Shaw Institute of Clinical Medicine of Zhejiang University Ethics Committee in China (No. KY20200210-78).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bo-Wen Zhao, MD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Diagnostic Ultrasound and Echocardiography, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University College of Medicine, No. 3 East Qingchun Road, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China. zbwcjp@zju.edu.cn
Received: September 3, 2021
Peer-review started: September 3, 2021
First decision: December 1, 2021
Revised: December 10, 2021
Accepted: March 14, 2022
Article in press: March 14, 2022
Published online: May 6, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

This study used HeartModel (HM), a new software to quickly quantify the left heart volume and left ventricular function in patients with common heart diseases to determine whether there are differences in the feasibility, accuracy, and repeatability of measuring the left ventricular end-diastolic (LVEDV), LV ejection fraction (LVEF) and left atrial end-systolic volume (LAESV) and to compare these measurements with those obtained with traditional methods.

Research motivation

Compared with traditional three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE), HM is easier to operate and boasts better measurement accuracy and repeatability. At present, the application value of HM in quantifying left heart volume and left ventricular function in patients with common heart diseases remains unclear.

Research objectives

The study aimed to assess the value of HM in quantifying the left heart volume and left ventricular function of patients with common heart diseases.

Research methods

This study retrospectively assessed patients with common heart diseases who were divided into 4 groups: (1) Patients with normal heart shape and function (control group, Group A); (2) patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (Group B); (3) patients with LV remodeling after acute myocardial infarction (Group C); and (4) patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) (Group D). The measurements obtained were assessed.

Research results

HM without regional endocardial border editing (HM-NE) quantified left ventricular volume parameters, obtaining values that were highly correlated and larger than those obtained with advanced cardiac 3D quantification (3DQA) (bias: LVEDV, 28.17 mL; LVESV, 14.92 mL; LAESV, 8.18 mL; LVEF, -0.04%). The correlations between HM without regional endocardial border editing (HM-RE) and 3DQA (rs= 0.91-0.95, P < 0.05 for all) were higher than those between HM-NE (rs= 0.85-0.93, P < 0.05 for all). The correlations of LVEDV and LVESV between HM-RE and 3DQA were good for the control group, dilated cardiomyopathy group and segmental wall motion abnormality group, but remained weak for the HCM group (rs= 0.48-0.54, P < 0.05 for all). The intraobserver and interobserver variability for the HM-RE measurements were low.

Research conclusions

HM can accurately assess the left atrial volume of common clinical heart disease and fibrillation patients with a high correlation.

Research perspectives

Future studies should increase the sample size and are confirm that these findings can be extended to more patients.