Left ventricular volume estimation for real-time three-dimensional echocardiography

The application of level set techniques to echocardiographic data is presented. This method allows semiautomatic segmentation of heart chambers, which regularizes the shapes and improves edge fidelity, especially in the presence of gaps, as is common in ultrasound data. The task of the study was to reconstruct left ventricular shape and to evaluate left ventricular volume. Data were acquired with a real-time three-dimensional (3-D) echocardiographic system. The method was applied directly in the three-dimensional domain and was based on a geometric-driven scheme. The numerical scheme for solving the proposed partial differential equation is borrowed from numerical methods for conservation law. Results refer to in vitro and human in vivo acquired 3-D+time echocardiographic data. Quantitative validation was performed on in vitro balloon phantoms. Clinical application of this segmentation technique is reported for 20 patient cases providing measures of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction.