PubMed · 915541
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K Bom. Some thoughts on echocardiology.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/915541/
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The acquisition, storage and retrieval of digital echocardiographic studies greatly facilitates image review and quantitation and permits the transmission of studies electronically. However, the considerable size of digital echocardiographic data files makes transmission over existing networks slow and impractical. Reduction in the size of these data files can be accomplished with digital image compression. We sought to evaluate the effects of MPEG-1 compression on the transfer time of digital echocardiographic studies over currently available network connections. Ninety consecutive routine clinical echocardiographic studies were randomly compressed at one of three compression ratios 60:1, 80:1, or 120:1 and sent to a receiving terminal using simulated transmission rates. Compression of digital echocardiographic studies at these ratios which, have been shown to maintain diagnostic image quality, reduced the size of digital echocardiographic studies to less than 1% of their original sizes which allowed transmission of echocardiographic studies over networks using 3ISDN or T1 lines with minimal waiting time.
Left ventricular (LV) mass is a powerful predictor for future cardiovascular events. Epidemiologic studies have shown that hyperlipidemia is associated with higher LV mass. The effects of statin therapy for hyperlipidemia on LV mass have not been studied. To determine the effects of statin therapy on LV mass, we prospectively studied 3 groups of age and body surface area-matched patients: group 1 (n = 20), patients with systemic hypertension and hyperlipidemia treated with pravastatin plus anti-hypertensive drugs; group 2 (n = 20), patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia treated with hypertensive agents and diet control alone; and group 3 (n = 20), hypertensive patients with normolipidemia treated with antihypertensive agents. A group of controls without hypertension or hyperlipidemia was used for comparison. Echocardiograms were recorded at baseline and after 6-month therapy. All hypertensive groups showed significant decreases in LV mass index after treatment. Group 1 had the greatest decrease in LV mass and it was significantly higher than in groups 2 and 3. Multivariate analysis revealed that regression of LV mass was significantly correlated only with the use of statins and sex (p = 0.005 and 0.01, respectively, R(2) = 0.47). Linear regression analysis in group 1 showed a significant correlation between changes in arterial compliance and LV mass regression (r = 0.57, p = 0.01). Thus, the addition of a statin may have an additional effect on reducing LV mass, independent of lipid-lowering effects.
We examined the effect of tissue harmonic imaging on the echocardiographic splitability score and valve area measurement of 40 patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis. Planimetered valve areas were unaffected by the use of harmonic imaging, but valve scores were increased, particularly in patients with scores <10.