Reproducibility of Doppler aortic blood flow measurements: studies on intraobserver, interobserver and day-to-day variability in normal subjects

Doppler aortic flow velocity measurements have been used to assess quantitatively left ventricular performance at rest and after pharmacologic and other hemodynamic interventions. To permit more meaningful interpretation of Doppler data, 10 normal subjects were studied to establish the intraobserver, interobserver and day-to-day variability in Doppler aortic flow velocity measurements. In each subject, pulsed Doppler recordings of ascending aortic flow velocity were obtained from the suprasternal notch on 2 different days (mean interval 6 days), with the same technician performing and same physician reading both Doppler studies to evaluate day-to-day variability of measurements. Interobserver variability was assessed by having 2 observers read each Doppler study. Both observers read the Doppler records from both days again at a second session to determine intraobserver variability. Intraobserver variability ranged from 1.9 +/- 1.8 to 3.2 +/- 2.9% for ejection time, peak flow velocity and flow velocity integral, but was higher for acceleration time (7.9 +/- 6.6%). Interobserver variability ranged from 3.5 +/- 2.2 to 5.4 + 3.4% for peak flow velocity, ejection time and flow velocity integral, but was notably higher for acceleration time (17 +/- 9%). Day-to-day variability was higher for acceleration time (7.0 +/- 5.2%) than for ejection time, peak flow velocity and flow velocity integral (range from 3.6 +/- 3.1 to 5.2 +/- 4.0%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)