QUANTIFYING REGIONAL WALL MOTION AND THICKENING IN TWO-DIMENSIONAL ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY WITH A COMPUTER-AIDED CONTOURING SYSTEM.

The advent of real time phased array two-dimensional echocardiographic systems permits rapid collection of ultrasonic data on cardiac structure and function. These systems are immediately useful in numerous cases where observation of the recorded data by a skilled observer results in proper diagnosis of a variety of cardiac disorders. The recorded data also contain information regarding a number of regional cardiac performance parameters, such as changes and rates of change which are not readily quantifiable by even a skilled observer without additional data manipulation techniques designed to permit numerical measurement and display of a variety of potentially useful cardiac parameters. The major problem, and the one on which the authors area concentrating, is the rapid extraction of accurate numerical information from the pictorial information provided by a typical two-dimensional echo system. This report describes the approach and the current status.