Ultrasonic tissue characterization with Backscattered Energy Temporal Analysis differentiates pressure-overloaded left ventricular hypertrophy from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Whether the ultrasonic tissue characteristics using backscattered energy temporal analysis (BETA) could differentiate pressure over-loaded left ventricular hypertropy (LVH) from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) was investigated. Twenty normal subjects, 12 patients with LVH, and 14 with HCM were studied. Results show that the thickness in normal subjects was significantly lower than LVH and HCM patients. Whereas, there was no significant difference in posterior wall thickness between LVH and HCM. However, the cyclic variation of subendocardial valves in LVH was significantly lower than that in HCM patients.