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Automated contouring of non-contrast enhanced echocardiograms result in similar estimates of left ventricular function to manually contoured contrast enhanced images in chemotherapy patients.

  • | By Ultromics

Ashley Akerman, Lori Bernard, Tine Deschamps, Bernadette Foster, Will Hawkes, Eila Mirhadi, Hania Piotrowska, Rizwan Sarwar, Louise Tetlow, Gary Woodward, Harald Becher.

Automated-contouring-of-non-contrast-enhanced--echocardiograms-result--in-similar-estimates-of-left--ventricular-function-to--manually-contoured-contrast-enhanced-images--in-chemotherapy-patients

Poster of the study. Click image to open in new window.

Background

  • Transthoracic echocardiography ( assessment of the left ventricle ( is central in the early detection of cancer therapy related cardiac dysfunction CTRCD.
  • Measurement variability ca be reduced by both contrast enhancement of TTEs, and automated contouring of the LV with artificial intelligence (AI).

Method

  • Single centre retrospective study.
  • Patients monitored for CRTCD at Mazankowski Alberta.
  • Heart Institute ( Canada) TTE at onset of cancer therapy, and after at least 3 months of treatment.
  • Manually contoured contrast enhanced images (MAN.CON) with IntelliSpace Cardiovascular (Phillips) compared to automated contouring on non contrast enhanced images (AUTO NON) using EchoGo Core ( UK).
  • Differences and agreement between methods evaluated by i statistical equivalence (two one sided t tests),tests),(error between methods, via root mean squared error (RMSE Deming Regression), and ( average bias and associated 95 confidence interval (Bland Altman.
  • Reproducibility estimates in a similar cohort informed equivalence bounds ( 20 mL ESV, 15 mL EF, 5 Thavendiranathen et al 2013 JACC and were used to interpret mean error and bias.

Results

  • AUTO-NON differentiated functional cardiac differences between diagnoses, at baseline and during cancer therapy(Figure1).
  • Most differences between MAN-CON and AUTO-NON were small enough tobe considered statistically equivalent (Table2 and Figure2).
  • For all outcomes and diagnoses, mean bias (Bland-Altman) was also within acceptable limits(Table2).

Conclusion

Despite poorer image quality, Automated contouring of non-contrast enhanced TTE are comparable to manually contoured contrast enhanced images. AI contouring of non-contrast enhanced TTEs has the potential to improve detection and management of CTRCD.