Correlation of Echocardiographic Normalized Peak Rate of Left Ventricular Area Expansion With Radionuclide Peak Filling Rate

The purpose of this study was to determine whether normalized peak rate of left ventricular area expansion during diastole, as obtained from echocardiography using the parasternal short-axis view, correlates well with left ventricular diastolic peak filling rate, as determined from radionuclide ventriculography. Normalized peak rate of area expansion, readily calculated from tracings of the ventricular endocardium on sequential echocardiographic image frames, can be measured rapidly, non-invasively, repeatedly, and without radiation exposure. The advent of automated edge detection systems that permit continuous, on line display of ventricular areas may further enhance the utility of this technique. Twenty-four patients with and without regional wall-motion abnormalities who had both echocardiography and radionuclide ventriculography as part of their clinical care were analyzed. Comparing normalized peak rate of area expansion with peak filling rate, the correlation coefficient was 0.86 (P < 0.001). These findings suggest that echocardiographically derived normalized peak area expansion measured in the parasternal short-axis view is an excellent measure of global diastolic function.