Chamber dimensions and functional assessment with coronary computed tomographic angiography as compared to echocardiography using American Society of Echocardiography guidelines

BACKGROUND The correlation between normal cardiac chamber linear dimensions measured during retrospective coronary computed tomographic angiography as compared to transthoracic echocardiography using the American Society of Echocardiography guidelines is not well established. METHODS We performed a review from January 2005 to July 2011 to identify subjects with retrospective electrocardiogram-gated coronary computed tomographic angiography scans for chest pain and transthoracic echocardiography with normal cardiac structures performed within 90 days. Dimensions were manually calculated in both imaging modalities in accordance with the American Society of Echocardiography published guidelines. Left ventricular ejection fraction was calculated on echocardiography manually using the Simpson's formula and by coronary computed tomographic angiography using the end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes. RESULTS We reviewed 532 studies, rejected 412 and had 120 cases for review with a median time between studies of 7 days (interquartile range (IQR25,75) = 0-22 days) with no correlation between the measurements made by coronary computed tomographic angiography and transthoracic echocardiography using Bland-Altman analysis. We generated coronary computed tomographic angiography cardiac dimension reference ranges for both genders for our population. CONCLUSION Our findings represent a step towards generating cardiac chamber dimensions' reference ranges for coronary computed tomographic angiography as compared to transthoracic echocardiography in patients with normal cardiac morphology and function using the American Society of Echocardiography guideline measurements that are commonly used by cardiologists.