This thesis is about the various aspects of quantitative cardiac ultrasound. The first
four chapters are mainly devoted to the reproducibility of echocardiographic
measurements. These . are focussed on the variation of echocardiographic
measurements within patients. An important issue, since this variation determines the
distinction between a real change of the measurement in a single patient or a_
difference caused by chance. The problems of the estimation of the variation of
measurements within patients and its clinical implications are elaborated more
specifically for Doppler velocity measurements and for cardiac volume determinations
using cross-sectional echocardiography. Next, there are two chapters about
echocardiographically determined normal ranges of cardiac dimensions. These
reference ranges provide for the quantitative distinction between sickness and health.
The last two chapters of this thesis deal with the newest aspect of quantitative cardiac
ultrasound: non-invasive cardiac tissue characterisation using integrated backscatter
measurements. These chapters are focussed on the distinction between normal
myocardial tissue and acute ischemic cardiac muscl