Abstract: Objective The effects of coronary heart disease on left ventricular(LV) function have been studied by various echocardiographic techniques(M-mode,2D echocardiography).These studies are hampered by a low accuracy of measurements because of geometric assumptions regarding LV shape.Real time three-dimensional echocardiography(RT-3DE) can overcome this limitation.Methods We detected 80 patients with coronary heart disease by 2D and RT-3D echocardiography.Each one was tested the feasibility of RT-3DE assessment of LV function.Conventional biplane Simpson rule(BSR) for LV function analysis was used as a reference.Paired t test was used for analysis of differences within the variations.Correlation analysis was performed for RT-3DE and 2DE measurements.Results All the patients were studied and in 70 of 80(87.5%) RT-3DE datasets were acquired.In 10 patients,the dataset was of insufficient quality and excluded from analysis.Correlation between BSR and RT-3DE for calculation of end-diastolic volume(EDV,r=0.875),end systolic volume(ESV,r=0.912) and for ejection fraction(EF,r=0.905) was moderate.2DE methods underestimated end diastolic and end-systolic volume,while overestimating ejection fraction.Conclusion RT-3DE is feasible for image acquisition during coronary heart disease,which opens the possibility for accurate and reproducible measurement of LV function.This may improve the assessment of the acute effect of coronary heart disease on LV performance,and guide therapeutic strategies.

Key words: real time three-dimensional echocardiography, coronary heart disease, left ventricular function