Left ventricular shape analysis applied to color kinesis images

Shape changes of cardiac chambers characterize a normal cardiac cycle. The importance of shape analysis is underlined in literature by studies of several forms of cardiac disease, revealing abnormalities in shape deformations. The aim of the paper is to describe an approach to an automated extraction of endocardial contours from a single end-systolic frame obtained by color kinesis technique, applied to 4-chamber apical view echocardiographic images. Then, global and regional indexes are applied to provide a quantification of left ventricular shape both at the beginning and at the end of systolic phase. The results prove that this approach can be useful in the assessment of the cardiac functionality.