A meta-analysis of echocardiographic measurements of the left heart for the development of normative reference ranges in a large international cohort: the EchoNoRMAL study

AIM: To develop age-, sex-, and ethnic-appropriate normative reference ranges for standard echocardiographic measurements of the left heart by combining echocardiographic measurements obtained from adult volunteers without clinical cardiovascular disease or significant cardiovascular risk factors, from multiple studies around the world.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The Echocardiographic Normal Ranges Meta-Analysis of the Left heart (EchoNoRMAL) collaboration was established and population-based data sets of echocardiographic measurements combined to perform an individual person data meta-analysis. Data from 43 studies were received, representing 51 222 subjects, of which 22 404 adults aged 18-80 years were without clinical cardiovascular or renal disease, hypertension or diabetes. Quantile regression or an appropriate parametric regression method will be used to derive reference values at the 5th and 95th centile of each measurement against age.

CONCLUSION: This unique data set represents a large, multi-ethnic cohort of subjects resident in a wide range of countries. The resultant reference ranges will have wide applicability for normative data based on age, sex, and ethnicity.