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Speckle tracking echocardiography in healthy children: comparison between the QLAB by Philips and the EchoPAC by General Electric

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Abstract

Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) has become a useful tool in cardiology but remains scarcely developed in pediatrics. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of STE analyses in healthy children and compare reliability of STE for left and right ventricles (LV, RV) between the EchoPAC (GE Healthcare) and the QLAB (Philips Healthcare) software systems. Healthy children were screened for this prospective cross-sectional study. Analyses were performed upon five levels of variability: intra/inter-ultrasound system, intra/inter-sonographer and intra/inter-analyzer. The feasibility was measured, and the tracking quality informed. The study included 156 healthy children. Mean age was 7.6 ± 5 years [1 month–16.8 years]. Conventional echocardiography variables were similar in both ultrasound systems. For both software brands, the tracking quality was excellent in the LV longitudinal and circumferential displacements, but more limited in the RV free wall longitudinal strain. Inter-ultrasound system correlation was poor for global longitudinal and circumferential LV strain (ICC of 0.34 [IC95% 0.06–0.57]) and 0.12 [IC95% − 0.18 to − 0.40], respectively). We observed poor inter-sonographer reliability for both global LV longitudinal strain and global LV circumferential strain with the two software systems. Inter-analyzer variability was good especially for the global LV circumferential strain using Philips software (ICC of 0.78 [IC95% 0.52–0.91]). In pediatrics, the Philips/GE inter-vendor level of variability in STE analysis is mainly due to inter ultrasound systems and inter sonographers’ differences. These results need to be taken into account when using STE analysis in the follow-up of cardiac children. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02056925.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Anne Cadene for the quality of study monitoring.

Funding

This work was supported by an institutional clinical research program from Montpellier University Hospital [Grant Reference Number UF9167].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pediatric and Congenital Cardiology Department, M3C Regional Reference CHD Center, Montpellier University Hospital, CHU Montpellier, 371 Avenue du Doyen Giraud, 34295, Montpellier, France

    Pascal Amedro, Charlene Bredy, Sophie Guillaumont, Gregoire De La Villeon, Kathleen Lavastre & Marie Vincenti

  2. PHYMEDEXP, University of Montpellier, CNRS, INSERM, Montpellier, France

    Pascal Amedro, Albano C. Meli, Sylvain Richard, Olivier Cazorla, Alain Lacampagne & Marie Vincenti

  3. Epidemiology and Clinical Research Department, University Hospital, Montpellier, France

    Lucie Gamon & Thibault Mura

  4. Clinical Investigation Center, University of Montpellier, INSERM, Montpellier, France

    Thibault Mura

  5. Pediatric Cardiology and Rehabilitation Unit, St-Pierre Institute, Palavas-Les-Flots, France

    Sophie Guillaumont, Gregoire De La Villeon & Marie Vincenti

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  1. Pascal Amedro
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Correspondence to Pascal Amedro.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by South Mediterranean IV Ethics Committee (2013-A00579-36).

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Informed consent was obtained from all parents or legal guardians of children included in the study.

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Amedro, P., Bredy, C., Guillaumont, S. et al. Speckle tracking echocardiography in healthy children: comparison between the QLAB by Philips and the EchoPAC by General Electric. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 35, 799–809 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-018-01516-2

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