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ECHONOMY
Tools for Echocardiographic Calculations

Muhamed Saric, MD, PhD
New York University
 

Pericardial Effusion

Purpose

To roughly estimate the amount of pericardial effusion based
on the diastolic thickness of a circumerential pericardial effusion.

Technical Hints

Chamber and wall thickness dimensions are obtained in a parasternal view at end diastole.

Calculator

RV Diameter:  

 cm

Interventricular Septum: 

 cm

LV Diameter:

 cm

Posterior Wall:

 cm

Pericardial Effusion Thickness:

 cm



 
 

Answers

Volume of the Pericardial Sac:

 ml

Volume of the Heart:

 ml

Volume of Pericardial Effusion:  ml

Reference

Teichholz correction formula for the cube rule (Am J Cardiol 1976;37:7-11) was used for above volume calculations.

Briefly, in the early days of M mode echocardiography, the volumes of cardiac chambers were calculated by cubing the chamber diameter (cube rule). That method overestimated the true volume; Teichholz method corrects for that overestimate.

CUBE RULE >>>> V = D3

TEICHHOLZ >>>> V = [7.0/(2.4 + D)] * D3

where V = volume and D = diameter.