Visually estimated left ventricular ejection fraction by echocardiography is closely correlated with formal quantitative methods.

Background: Simpson ejection fraction, wall motion score index, atrioventricular (AV) plane displacement and fractional shortening are all established formal echocardiographic methods for the assessment of left ventricular systolic function. Visually estimated (eyeballing) ejection fraction may be considered somewhat more subjective, although shown to correlate well with radionuclide ventriculography. We aimed to explore if echocardiographic eyeballing ejection fraction is comparable to formal methods for the evaluation of left ventricular systolic function.

Methods: We assessed 89 consecutive patients after myocardial infarction or before coronary angiography. Eyeballing ejection fraction and wall motion score index were evaluated in the long-axis, short-axis and apical four- and two-chamber views. Simpson ejection fraction and AV plane displacement were assessed in the apical views. Fractional shortening was measured in the parasternal long-axis view. The respective systolic function measurements were in each patient made at different time points by a single investigator, masked to prior results.

Results: All formal methods correlated significantly with eyeballing ejection fraction (p<0.001): AV plane displacement, R=0.647; FS, R=0.684; four-chamber Simpson ejection fraction, R=0.857; biplane Simpson ejection fraction, R=0.898; and wall motion score index, R=0.919.

Conclusion: Eyeballing ejection fraction correlated closely with all formal methods and the correlation coefficient improved with the reliability of the formal method. This finding is in concordance with prior studies, indicating that eyeballing ejection fraction may be the most accurate echocardiographic method for the assessment of left ventricular systolic function. Since it is readily and quickly performed, eyeballing ejection fraction could be used for routine echocardiography instead of formal methods.