Distance and area measurement of the right atrium and ventricle by echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging - do we measure the same thing?

Purpose: It has previously been shown that stroke volumes measured by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) are underestimated, compared to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in distance and area measurements of the right atrium (RA) and the right ventricle (RV) by TTE and CMR.Methods: TTE examinations and CMR examinations were subsequently performed in 12 healthy volunteers. Three distances (RAL - right atrial length, RVIT3 - right ventricular inflow tract, RVLAX - right ventricular long axis) and one area (RVA - right ventricular area) were measured in TTE and CMR. Stroke volumes were also calculated using conventional methods available on each modality. Both intramodality and intermodality comparisons were performed based on measurements from three observers. One of the observers performed measurements in both TTE and CMR.Results: Intermodality comparisons showed that all distance and area measurements were significantly smaller using TTE (Table 1). Two of the measurements, RVIT3 and RVA, differed at about 50%. Calculated stroke volumes showed, consistent with previous results, that the TTE stroke volumes are substantially underestimated compared to CMR volumes. Intramodality variations of distance and area measurements were considerably smaller (Table 1).Conclusions: Our results show that RV distances and areas measured by TTE are smaller compared to CMR, probably due to differences in defining the endocardial borders. These differences subsequently result in smaller stroke volumes when using TTE. Caution should be taken when comparing distances, areas and volumes measured by TTE and CMR.