古本 渉, 水重 克文, 平尾 健一, 植田 孝, 岩藤 泰慶, 大森 浩二, 松尾 裕英

Wataru FURUMOTO, Katsufumi MIZUSHIGE, Kenichi HIRAO, Takashi UEDA, Yasuyoshi IWADO, Koji OHMORI, Hirohide MATSUO

香川医科大学第2内科

Second Department of Internal Medicine, Kagawa Medical University, 1750-1 Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa 761-0793

キーワード : Automated wall thickness curve system, Left ventricular systolic function, Percent systolic wall thickening

Background.-The real-time wall thickness (WT) curve system is a new technique for automated measurement of left ventricular (LV) WT in an arbitrary direction in the two-dimensional echocardiogram.
Objective.-To test the feasibility of the real-time wall thickness curve system in the quantitative evaluation of LV wall motion.
Methods.-The WT curve system was used to measure percent systolic wall thickening (%WT) of the interventricular septum (IVS), lateral wall (LW), and posterior wall (PW) in parasternal long-or short-axis images quantitatively in 39 normal subjects. In 11 of these subjects, %WT measured with the new system was compared with that measured using conventional M-mode. Interobserver and intraobserver variation was also examined.
Results.-In the LV long-axis view, %WT was 48.5±25.5% at basal-IVS, 64.5±18.9% at mid-IVS, 53.2±21.3% at basal-PW, and 57.6±19.5% at mid-PW. At the papillary muscle level in the short-axis view, %WT was 79.6±20.6% at mid-IVS, 59.9±13.6% at PW, and 62.5±17.7% at LW. %WT values determined by this system and those determined by conventional M-mode correlated closely in IVS (r=0.99; p Conclusion.-The WT curve system enabled us to assess regional wall function as %WT. Because it excludes the effects of heart motion, this system may prove to be of great clinical benefit in evaluating regional wall function.