Comparison of echocardiographic and necropsy measurements of left ventricular wall thickness in patients with coronary artery disease

Abstract

The necropsy and echocardiographic (echo) measurements of left ventricular (LV) wall thickness differ from each other. To investigate the reasons for this disparity, the diastolic and systolic LV thicknesses were correlated by echo and necropsy measurements in 41 patients. The diastolic LV wall thickness (12.7 +/- 2.8 mm) was significantly less than the systolic LV wall thickness by echo (16.7 +/- 3.1 mm; p less than 0.001) and the necropsy LV wall thickness (15.9 +/- 3.5 mm; p less than 0.001). The systolic measurements of the LV wall thickness by echo correlated well and did not differ from the necropsy measurements of the LV wall thickness (difference not significant). Thus, disparities exist between the echo diastolic LV wall thickness and the necropsy LV wall thickness, as the hearts are in the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle. The echo systolic LV wall thickness measurements do not differ from the necropsy LV wall thickness measurements, and the former are predictive of necropsy LV wall thickness.