Left Ventricular Mass Estimated by Three Methods of Echocardiography in Normal Children

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Left ventricular hypertrophy is an important diagnostic and prognostic finding in children with various cardiovascular diseases. Echocardiographic determination of the left ventricular mass is the most accurate method for assessing left ventricular hypertrophy non-invasively. The purposes of this study are 1) to establish a reproducible, validated method for determining left ventricular mass in children by echocardiography, 2) to investigate correlation between LV mass and several factors (body surface area, weight, age, height), and 3) to define reference standards for the left ventricular mass. METHODS: Left ventricular mass was estimated in 63 normal children by three different methods of echocardiography (M mode, modified Simpson's method, Are-length method). RESULTS: The mean LV mass per body surface area were 49.7 +/- 19.4gm/m2, 40.1 +/- 11.2gm/m2, 39.9 +/- 9.6gm/m2 by M mode, Simpson and Area-Length method respectively and was highest by the M mode method. The mean LV mass per body weight were 2.6 +/- 0.9gm/kg, 2.3 +/- 0.6gm/kg, 2.1 +/- 0.5gm/kg by M mode, Simpson and Area-Length method respectively and was highest by the M mode method. Lineal regression analysis between LV mass and body surface area revealed the highest correlation. The values of LV mass by all three method were well correlated. Correlation between Area-Length method and Simpson method was higher than that between Area-Length and M mode method. CONCLUSION: Echocardiography is a very useful method to measure the left ventricular ass. Body surface area is highly correlated with LV mass in all three methods. Area-Length method and Simpson method are superior to the M mode method.