Canine left ventricular mass estimation by two-dimensional echocardiography.

This study was designed to develop a two-dimensional echocardiographic method of measuring the mass of the left ventricle. The general formula for an ellipse was used to derive an algorithm that described the shell volume of concentric truncated ellipsoids. In 10 canine left ventricular two-dimensional echocardiograms, this algorithm accurately predicted postmortem left ventricular mass (r = .98, SEE +/- 6 g) and was independent of cardiac cycle phase (systole vs diastole, r = .92).