Practical considerations for a method of rapid cardiac function analysis based on three-dimensional speckle tracking in a three-dimensional diagnostic ultrasound system.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to validate the accuracy of our novel 3D speckle tracking method by using numerical data, and to demonstrate the rapid processing of this method by using data obtained from human subjects.

Methods: In order to create a method that can rapidly assess cardiac function in regional heart wall segments, a 3D speckle tracking algorithm was created that focuses on data quality and performance. Prototype application software based on this algorithm was written to evaluate cardiac wall motion and to calculate indices such as strain.

Usefulness of automated quantitation of regional left ventricular wall motion by a novel method of two-dimensional echocardiographic tracking.

A novel 2-dimensional (2-D) echocardiographic tracking method enables the automated tracking of displacement between 2 points of interest in echocardiographic images. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether this 2-D tracking method could be used to measure left ventricular (LV) wall thickness and percent systolic wall thickening (%WT) in parasternal short-axis views, in comparison with conventional manual measurement, and to determine whether this system can be used to quantitatively assess regional LV wall motion in echocardiography. In 24 subjects (12 with LV wall motion abnormalities), 6 segments in the short-axis images were assessed by this method.

A semiautomated technique for evaluation of uterine peristalsis.

Purpose: To evaluate the capability of a newly developed semiautomatic analysis technique for evaluation of uterine peristalsis in comparison with visual assessment.

Materials And Methods: Cine magnetic resonance (MR) images were obtained from 16 normal volunteers in periovulatory phase. Sixty-eight studies were evaluated by both visual evaluation and by a semiautomated computer assisted software.