Normal echocardiographic measurements in Indian adults: How different are we from the western populations? A pilot study

This study sought to gain insights into the magnitude of error resulting in echocardiographic interpretations in Indian subjects by using western data as the reference. Standard transthoracic echocardiographic examination was performed in 100 healthy volunteers (mean age 34.0 ± 8.8 years, 59% males). Compared with the reference values published by the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), our subjects had much smaller left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic dimension, end-systolic dimension, and end-diastolic volume (only 58%, 61%, and 61% of the subjects were having values within the ASE-defined normal ranges). Indexing to body surface area increased these proportions to 81%, 90%, and 68%, respectively. In contrast, LV ejection fraction and most of the measures of LV diastolic function coincided with the ASE-recommended age- and gender-specific values.