The international journal of cardiovascular imaging
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Int J Cardiovasc Imaging · May 2019
Assessment of aortic valve tract dynamics using automatic tracking of 3D transesophageal echocardiographic images.
The assessment of aortic valve (AV) morphology is paramount for planning transcatheter AV implantation (TAVI). Nowadays, pre-TAVI sizing is routinely performed at one cardiac phase only, usually at mid-systole. Nonetheless, the AV is a dynamic structure that undergoes changes in size and shape throughout the cardiac cycle, which may be relevant for prosthesis selection. ⋯ Using the maximum or minimum measured values rather than mid-systolic ones for device sizing resulted in a potential change of recommended size in 7% and 60% of the cases, respectively. The presented software tool allows a fast, automatic and reproducible dynamic assessment of the AV morphology from 3D-TEE images, with the extracted measures influencing the device selection depending on the cardiac moment used to perform its sizing. This novel tool may thus ease and potentially increase the observer's confidence during prosthesis' size selection at the preoperative TAVI planning.