Quantitative analysis of transesophageal echocardiograms for theintraoperative setting: clinical need and initial experience

摘要

Two computerized analysis systems that provide objectiveinterpretation of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) images aredescribed. A semi-automated system has been used to study systolic wallthickening (SWT) as a means of assessing the effects of anesthetics onTEE. Representative data are presented, showing marked decrease in SWTas a result of halothane administration. Initial experience with thissystem has demonstrated persistently high interexamination variabilityof SWT measurements, which is largely the result of its reliance onmanual, user-dependent description of the cardiac outlines. In order tocorrect this problem, as well as to be able to utilize the analysisprocess into the real-time interoperative environment, development of amore fully automated system that incorporates computed detection andestimation of cardiac boundaries has begun. The implementation of thesystem and the procedure it uses are described. A number of steps toimprove the automated boundary detection process are given