EACVI-ASE-industry initiative to standardize deformation imaging: a brief update from the co-chairs.

Echocardiographic quantitation of myocardial deformation has been one of the most significant developments in our field over the last decade, with important applications in basic myocardial mechanics, ischaemic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, valvular heart disease, diastolic function, and in detecting pre-clinical myocardial dysfunction such as in cardiotoxicity in cancer chemotherapy and valvular regurgitation. Unfortunately, several investigators have documented a relatively poor reproducibility when strain is calculated using echocardiographic equipment from different vendors, an issue that threatens widespread clinical application of this important new technology. Recognizing the critical need for standardization in strain imaging, in 2010, the leaders of the European Association of Echocardiography (now the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, EACVI), and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) invited technical representatives from all interested vendors to participate in a concerted effort to reduce intervendor variability of strain measurement. Table 1 lists the society and vendor representatives on this committee, which met for the first time at EuroEcho in Copenhagen in December, 2010.This brief …