Full-Volume Assessment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm by Improved-Field-of-View 3-D Ultrasound Performs Comparably to Computed Tomographic Angiography

Abstract

Three-dimensional ultrasound (US) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) is limited by the field-of-view of the 3D-US transducer. To obtain an extended field-of-view (XFoV), two transducer navigation system-assisted US protocols have been developed: XFoV-2D and XFoV-3D. In this study, the XFoV US protocols were compared with the currently available 3D-US protocol with standard field-of-view (FoV-st) and the established gold standard, computed tomography angiography (CTA). A total of 65 patients with AAA were included, and AAA imaging was processed offline with prototype software. The novel XFoV-2D and XFoV-3D protocols allowed for assessment of full AAA volume in significantly more patients (45/65 [69%] and 43/65 [66%], respectively), compared with the current 3D-US standard, FoV-st (30/65 [46%] patients). The mean difference in AAA volume estimation between each XFoV US protocol and 3-D CTA differed significantly (XFoV-2D: 16.9 mL, XFoV-3D: 7.6 mL, p = 0.002), indicating that XFoV-3D agreed best with 3D-CTA. No significant difference was found in the variance of full AAA volume quantification between each XFoV US protocol and CTA (p = 0.49). It is concluded that the XFoV US protocols improved the generation of full AAA volumes compared with the currently available 3D-US technology, with AAA volume estimates comparable to CTA estimates.

Keywords: Abdominal aortic aneurysm; Magnetic tracking-assisted ultrasound; Three-dimensional ultrasound; Transducer navigation system; Volume assessment.