Left Heart Chamber Volumetric Assessment by Automated Three-Dimensional Echocardiography in Heart Transplant Recipients

Yiwei Zhang; Chun Wu; Wei Sun; Shuangshuang Zhu; Yanting Zhang; Yuji Xie; Ye Zhu; Zisang Zhang; Yang Zhao; Yuman Li; Mingxing Xie; Li Zhang

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.877051

Left Heart Chamber Volumetric Assessment by Automated Three-Dimensional Echocardiography in Heart Transplant Recipients

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Apr 27:9:877051. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.877051. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yiwei Zhang^{1

2}, Chun Wu^{1

2}, Wei Sun^{1

2}, Shuangshuang Zhu^{1

2}, Yanting Zhang^{1

2}, Yuji Xie^{1

2}, Ye Zhu^{1

2}, Zisang Zhang^{1

2}, Yang Zhao^{1

2}, Yuman Li^{1

2}, Mingxing Xie^{1

2}, Li Zhang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ultrasound Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Background: Recently, a new automated software (Heart Model) was developed to obtain three-dimensional (3D) left heart chamber volumes. The aim of this study was to verify the feasibility and accuracy of the automated 3D echocardiographic algorithm in heart transplant (HTx) patients. Conventional manual 3D transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) tracings and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images were used as a reference for comparison.

Methods: This study enrolled 103 healthy HTx patients prospectively. In protocol 1, left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), LV end-systolic volume (LVESV), left atrial max volume (LAVmax), LA minimum volume (LAVmin) and LV ejection fraction (LVEF) were obtained using the automated 3D echocardiography (3DE) and compared with corresponding values obtained through the manual 3DE. In protocol 2, 28 patients' automated 3DE measurements were compared with CMR reference values. The impacts of contour edit and surgical technique were also tested.

Results: Heart Model was feasible in 97.1% of the data sets. In protocol 1, there was strong correlation between 3DE and manual 3DE for all the parameters (r = 0.77 to 0.96, p<0.01). Compared to values obtained through manual measurements, LV volumes and LVEF were overestimated by the automated algorithm and LA volumes were underestimated. All the biases were small except for that of LAVmin. After contour adjustment, the biases reduced and all the limits of agreement were clinically acceptable. In protocol 2, the correlations for LV and LA volumes were strong between automated 3DE with contour edit and CMR (r = 0.74 to 0.93, p<0.01) but correlation for LVEF remained moderate (r = 0.65, p < 0.01). Automated 3DE overestimated LV volumes but underestimated LVEF and LA volumes compared with CMR. The limits of agreement were clinically acceptable only for LVEDV and LAVmax.

Conclusion: Simultaneous quantification of left heart volumes and LVEF with the automated Heart Model program is rapid, feasible and to a great degree it is accurate in HTx recipients. Nevertheless, only LVEDV and LAVmax measured by automated 3DE with contour edit seem applicable for clinical practice when compared with CMR. Automated 3DE for HTx recipients is a worthy attempt, though further verification and optimization are needed.

Keywords: 3D echocardiography; heart model; heart transplant; left atrial volume; left ventricular function; left ventricular volume.