Age dependency of the tonal properties of left ventricular myocardium in normal subjects assessed by the gray level histogram of 2D echocardiograms

Author

Morales, MA ; Ferdeghini, EM ; Piacenti, M. ; Distante, A. ; Benassi, A. ; Maggiore, Q.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Clinical Physiol., CNR, Pisa, Italy

fYear

1998

fDate

13-16 Sep 1998

Firstpage

81

Lastpage

84

Abstract

Quantitative analysis of two dimensional echocardiographic images by the assessment of the gray level distribution can provide objective information on the underlying structures. Since the process of aging at myocardial level is characterized by increase in collagen content and myocellular hypertrophy, this study was aimed to assess whether age affects the tonal properties of LV myocardium in a normal population. A significant positive relation was found between age and mean and age and entropy; a negative relation was observed for age and uniformity. Thus, the tonal properties of the myocardium assessed on conventional 2D echocardiograms change with age, being characterized by an increased overall brightness and a progressive lack of homogeneity, possibly ascribed to the normal histologic changes which occur with age

Keywords

echocardiography; medical image processing; muscle; 2D echocardiograms; age dependency; gray level histogram; increased overall brightness; left ventricular myocardium; medical diagnostic imaging; normal histologic changes; normal subjects; progressive homogeneity lack; tonal properties; Aging; Cardiology; Cardiovascular diseases; Histograms; Hospitals; Image analysis; Myocardium; Physiology; Samarium; Two dimensional displays;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Computers in Cardiology 1998

Conference_Location

Cleveland, OH

ISSN

0276-6547

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5200-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CIC.1998.731727

Filename

731727