Feasibility of single-beat full-volume capture real-time three-dimensional echocardiography for quantification of right ventricular volume: validation by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: The lack of an accurate noninvasive method for assessing right ventricular (RV) volume and function has been a major deficiency of two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography. The aim of our study was to test the feasibility of single-beat full-volume capture with real-time three-dimensional echo (3DE) imaging system for the evaluation of RV volumes and function validated by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI).

Methods: Sixty-one subjects (16 normal subjects, 20 patients with hypertension, 16 patients with pulmonary heart disease and 9 patients with coronary heart disease) were studied. RV volume and function assessments using 3DE were compared with manual tracing with CMRI as the reference method.

Results: Fifty-nine of 61 patients (96.7%; 36 male, mean age, 62 ± 15 years) had adequate three-dimensional echocardiographic data sets for analysis. The mean RV end diastolic volume (EDV) was 105 ± 38 ml, end-systolic volume (ESV) was 60 ± 30 and RV ejection fraction (EF) was 44 ± 11% by CMRI; and EDV 103 ± 38 ml, ESV 60 ± 28 ml and RV EF 41 ± 13% by 3DE. The correlations and agreements between measurements estimated by two methods were acceptable.

Conclusion: RV volumes and function can be analyzed with 3DE software in most of subjects with or without heart diseases, which is able to be estimated with single-beat full-volume capture with real-time 3DE compared with CMRI.