Reference ranges for left ventricular geometry and function by 3D echocardiography using a vendor-independent software for quantitative analysis

Reference ranges for left ventricular (LV) geometry and function by 3D echocardiography (3DE) have been reported for vendor-specific softwares only, thus limiting their widespread applicability across other vendors. Purpose: To identify LV normative values using a vendor-independent DICOM-based software commercially available (4D LV Analysis 3.1, TomTec, DE). Methods: In 235 consecutive healthy volunteers (44+14 years, range 18–76 years, 104 men), 3DLV datasets (35+6 vps) acquired with GEVivid E9 scanner have been analyzed by a single experienced researcher. Subjects had no history of cardiovascular or lung disease, no symptoms or cardiovascular risk factors, no cardioactive or vasoactive treatment, andnormal results at ECG and physical examination. Exclusion criteria were athletic training, pregnancy, body mass index .30 kg/m2, and poor apical acoustic window. Results: All LV parameters were significantly correlated with body surface area (p,0.001). Gender differences in LV geometry and function were still significant after their indexing by body surface area (Table). LV volumes and stroke volume decreased with ageing (p,0.006), whereas LV mass and mass/volume ratio increased significantly with age (p,0.001). Conclusion: Our study provides age- and gender-specific reference values for LV geometry and function obtained by a vendor-independent 3DE software from a large population of healthy volunteers uniformly distributed across age decades. Our data may foster the routine use of 3DE for assessing LV remodelling in multi-vendor echo labs.