Application of 3-d echocardiography and gated micro-computed tomography to assess cardiomyopathy in a mouse model of duchenne muscular dystrophy

Andrew B Bondoc; Sarah Detombe; Joy Dunmore-Buyze; Kelly M Gutpell; Linshan Liu; Amanda Kaszuba; Seongryoung Han; Rebecca McGirr; Jennifer Hadway; Maria Drangova; Lisa M Hoffman

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2014.07.015

Application of 3-d echocardiography and gated micro-computed tomography to assess cardiomyopathy in a mouse model of duchenne muscular dystrophy

Ultrasound Med Biol. 2014 Dec;40(12):2857-67. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2014.07.015. Epub 2014 Oct 11.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Imaging Program, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
² Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
³ Imaging Program, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Imaging Program, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Imaging Program, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Imaging Program, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: lhoffman@lawsonimaging.ca.

PMID: 25308942
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2014.07.015

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure changes in cardiac function as cardiomyopathy progresses in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy using 3-D ECG-gated echocardiography. This study is the first to correlate cardiac volumes acquired using 3-D echocardiography with those acquired using retrospectively gated micro-computed tomography (CT). Both were further compared with standard M-mode echocardiography and histologic analyses. We found that although each modality measures a decrease in cardiac function as disease progresses in mdx/utrn(-/-) mice (n = 5) compared with healthy C57BL/6 mice (n = 8), 3-D echocardiography has higher agreement with gold-standard measurements acquired by gated micro-CT, with little standard deviation between measurements. M-Mode echocardiography measurements, in comparison, exhibit considerably greater variability and user bias. Given the radiation dose associated with micro-CT and the geometric assumptions made in M-mode echocardiography to calculate ventricular volume, we suggest that use of 3-D echocardiography has important advantages that may allow for the measurement of early disease changes that occur before overt cardiomyopathy.

Keywords: 3-D echocardiography; Dilated cardiomyopathy; Duchenne muscular dystrophy; Gated micro-computed tomography; M-Mode echocardiography; mdx/utrn(–/–) mice.

Publication types

Comparative Study
Evaluation Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Cardiac-Gated Imaging Techniques / methods*
Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional / methods*
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Knockout
Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne
Reproducibility of Results
Sensitivity and Specificity
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*