Citation

Solomon SD, Kytömaa H, Celi AC, Maas LC, Chou L, Hopkins J, Caguioa E, Lee RT. 1994. Myocardial tissue characterization by autocorrelation of two-dimensional ultrasonic backscatter. Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography. 7(6):631-40. Pubmed: 7840991

Abstract

To evaluate a novel method for determining the spatial distribution of echocardiographic information based on the two-dimensional autocorrelation function, echocardiographic images were obtained from specific regions of interest from 10 healthy volunteers, seven patients with genetically defined hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and nine patients with pressure-overload hypertrophy. The wavelength of distinct peaks from the two-dimensional autocorrelation of the images was compared between groups of patients and demonstrated a significant decrease in the mean length scale associated with distinct secondary correlation peaks in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or pressure-overload hypertrophy compared with healthy volunteers (p = 0.0009). With a discriminating wavelength of 3.3 mm, the sensitivity of this technique for detecting abnormal myocardium was 84% with a specificity of 89%. This study suggests that ultrasonic tissue characterization based on the two-dimensional autocorrelation function may have potential for distinguishing normal from abnormal myocardium and provides a rationale for textural approaches to ultrasonic tissue characterization.

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Rich Lee seeks to understand heart failure and metabolic diseases that accompany human aging, and translate that understanding into therapies. Lee is an active clinician, regularly treating patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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