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To determine the accuracy of visual analysis of left ventricular(LV) function in comparison with the accepted quantitative gold standard method, Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR). Cine CMR imaging was performed at 1.5 T on 44 patients with a range of ejection fractions (EF, 5–80%). Clinicians (n = 18)were asked to visually assess EF after sequentially being shown cine images of a four chamber(horizontal long axis; HLA), two chamber (vertical long axis; VLA) and a short axis stack(SAS)and results were compared to a commercially available analysis package. There were strong correlations between visual and quantitative assessment. However, the EF was underestimated in all categories (by 8.4% for HLA, 8.4% for HLA ? VLA and 7.9% for HLA ? VLA ? SAS, P all\0.01) and particularly underestimated in mild LV impairment (17.4%, P\0.01), less so for moderate (4.9%) and not for severe impairment (1%). Assessing more than one view of the heart improved visual assessment of LV, EF, however, clinicians underestimated EF by 8.4% on average, with particular inaccuracy in those with mild dysfunction. Given the important clinical information provided by LV assessment, quantitative analysis is recommended for accurate assessment.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Clinical sciences
Research Field:	Radiology and organ imaging
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Clinical health
Objective Field:	Clinical health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Edwards, LM (Dr Lindsay Edwards)
ID Code:	65725
Year Published:	2011
Web of Science® Times Cited:	6
Deposited By:	Medicine
Deposited On:	2010-12-01
Last Modified:	2012-06-18
Downloads:	0