Assessment of the accuracy and reproducibility of right ventricular volume measurements in patients with congenital heart disease

Abstract

Methods Data from 24 patients (mean age 19 years; range: 0.2 to 51 years) with CHD who underwent CMR were reviewed. Patients with ventricular level shunts and more than mild tricuspid regurgitation were excluded. Cine steady state free precession imaging was acquired in stacked axial and short-axis slices. RV contours were traced manually. Argus software was used to compute the end systolic volume (ESV) and end diastolic volume (EDV) using Simpson's method, and stroke volume (SV) by subtracting ESV from EDV. RV SV was also measured directly by phase contrast (PC) imaging, acquired in the main pulmonary artery. Flow measurements were made using Argus software. Measurements were made twice by one skilled observer to assess intra-observer variability. A second skilled observer repeated these measurements in a blinded fashion to assess inter-observer variability. Agreement between PC SV and SV measured in the axial and short-axis planes was assessed using Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (CCC). Interand intra-observer variability was also assessed using Lin's CCC.