Repeatability and reproducibility of feline echocardiographic left ventricular myocardial area and left ventricular wall thickness measurement techniques.

LVMAP offers superior reproducibility over conventional linear wall thickness measurements in feline echocardiography.

This retrospective study evaluated the repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) of two echocardiographic measurement techniques for assessing left ventricular dimensions in cats: left ventricular myocardial area (LVMA) measurements and conventional linear wall thickness measurements. Using right parasternal two-dimensional short-axis images at the papillary muscle level from 50 apparently healthy cats, four parameters were assessed: LVMA, left ventricular myocardial area including papillary muscles (LVMAP), interventricular septum thickness at end-diastole (IVSd), and left ventricular posterior wall thickness at end-diastole (LVPWd). Three observers each measured ten randomly selected echocardiograms on three separate occasions. R&R was quantified using Kendall's W for interobserver concordance and Gage R&R analysis for measurement system variability. LVMAP demonstrated the strongest performance, with the highest interobserver concordance (Kendall's W = 0.85) and lowest measurement system variability (Gage R&R = 6.57%). In contrast, conventional linear measurements IVSd and LVPWd showed lower concordance (0.67 and 0.60, respectively) and higher variability (17.88% and 13.22%, respectively). Study limitations include use of preselected high-quality cine loops from a single imaging system in normal cats only, which may overestimate real-world reproducibility and limit applicability to diseased populations. These findings suggest that LVMAP may offer superior measurement consistency compared to traditional linear parameters, potentially improving diagnostic reliability in feline cardiac assessment. Further validation studies in clinical populations are needed to establish LVMAP's diagnostic utility for conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

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