Calculation of left ventricular volume from 3D echocardiography: a comparison of three image analysis techniques

Left ventricular volume is an important clinical indicator for the diagnosis and the monitoring of treatment of many heart diseases. Automated quantification using echocardiography is challenging due to inherent image artefacts. In this paper, three different methods for calculating left ventricular volume were compared. 3D images of the left ventricle (LV) were reconstructed from rotationally acquired B-mode images for six patients at end-diastole and end-systole. By manual selection of the LV long-axis centre line, virtual, contiguous perpendicular short-axis images could be extracted. The LV wall was then detected by using (a) circle fitting, (b) smoothing between circles, and (c) greedy snake. Results of this study showed that there was no significant difference between chamber volume estimated by all three techniques.