Development of a new real-time MCE-based quantitative analysis system

The quantitative analysis system for real time myocardial contrast echocardiography can measure the values of A(microvascular cross-sectional area or myocardial blood volume)and β(myocardial microbubble velocity), A·β(myocardial blood flow), A-EER (endo-epi ratio of A ), β-EER and A·β-EER from the signal intensity of real-time 2-D grayscale images and power Doppler images, draw the time-intensity curves to indicate the variation of the intensity of micro-bubbles scattering in subendocardial layer and subepicardial layer with the varying of myocardial segments, and estimate the hemodynamic parameters by nonlinear regression analysis. The system also conformed to the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) standard and could be integrated into the picture archiving and communication system (PACS). The examples of clinical study indicated the clinical effectiveness of the system and the reliability of the quantitative analysis techniques employed in the system. © 2009 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.