Ultrasonic tissue characterization with a real time integrated backscatter imaging system in normal and aging human hearts

Abstract

Experimental studies have shown that variation in the magnitude of integrated ultrasonic backscatter during the cardiac cycle represents acoustic properties of myocardium that are affected by pathologic processes; however, there are few clinical studies using integrated backscatter. Forty subjects without cardiovascular disease (aged 22 to 71 years, mean 41) were studied with use of a new M-mode format integrated backscatter imaging system to characterize the range of cyclic variation of integrated backscatter in normal subjects. Cyclic variation in integrated backscatter was noted in both the septum and the posterior wall in all subjects. The magnitude of the cyclic variation of integrated backscatter and the interval from the onset of the QRS wave of the electrocardiogram to the minimal integrated backscatter value were measured using an area of interest of variable size for integrated backscatter sampling and a software resident in the ultrasound scanner. The magnitude of cyclic variation was larger for the posterior wall than for the septum (6.3 +/- 0.8 versus 4.9 +/- 1.3 dB, p less than 0.01). The interval to the minimal integrated backscatter value was 328 +/- 58 ms for the septum and 348 +/- 42 ms for the posterior wall (p = NS). There was a weak correlation between the magnitude of cyclic variation of integrated backscatter and subject age for the posterior wall (r = -0.47, p less than 0.01), but this was not significant for the septum (r = -0.21) (partially because of inability to exclude specular septal echoes) and septal endocardium.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Heart Function and Myocardial Tissue Characterization in Patients with HCV Related Cirrhosis: Diastolic Dysfunction and Cardiac Hypertrophy

“…Heart tissue characterization by means of echocardiography via the integrated backscatter (IBS) technique was also performed in a subset of cirrhotic patients in an attempt to obtain information on myocardial texture to assess whether hypertrophy or fibrosis is the background morphological change. This technique allows to obtain an indirect estimate of tissue density, usually decreased when a higher percentage of muscle fibres is present and increased when fibrosis prevails [36,37]. We also obtained information on the effects of aging on the morphofunctional heart changes observed.…”

“…Real-time quantitative integrated backscatter imaging has made possible clinical investigations in patients with ischemic heart disease [54], hypertrophic cardiomyopathy [36,55], among others. Published studies suggest that IBS is overall reduced in presence of cardiac hypertrophy [56] whereas an increase in IBS signal accounts for fibrosis [57].…”

Early Detection of Doxorubicin-Induced Myocardial Damage by Ultrasound Tissue Characterization With Integrated Backscatter

“…29,30 In this regard, CV-IBS may have an advantage over E/A ratio as an indicator of DXR-induced myocardial damage. Whether Doppler measurement of diastolic filling patterns or tissue characterization by CV-IBS is superior in detecting DXR-induced myocardial damage remains undetermined.…”

Myocardial integrated ultrasonic backscatter for early detection of cardiac involvement in patients with Wilson disease

“…Quantitative characterization of myocardial texture by IBS imaging has been experimentally (6-9) and clinically (10)(11)(12)(13) shown to be useful for detecting the pathologic changes affecting the myocardium, such as an aging heart (14), myocardial ischemia (15), hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy (16,17), hypertensive heart disease (18), and acute cardiac rejection (19), resulting in alterations in its fundamental physical properties.…”