= Frederick C. Cobey
{c}
\b[<Frederick C. Cobey>] studies quantitative cardiac imaging, including three-dimensional assessment of how the <mitral valve> leaflets meet during closure. He is first author of a 2014 primary study using transesophageal <echocardiography> to measure the valve's <coaptation area> and relate it to functional <mitral regurgitation>.<Quantitative assessment of mitral valve coaptation using three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography by Frederick C. Cobey and others>[Primary byline, affiliations and Abstract]{ref} The published name and affiliations establish this contribution without expanding the middle initial.
The study examined 25 patients with functional <mitral regurgitation> undergoing cardiac operations. It used intraoperative two- and three-dimensional <echocardiography>, followed by offline measurement of the end-systolic coaptation zone and valve area.<Quantitative assessment of mitral valve coaptation using three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography by Frederick C. Cobey and others>[Abstract, Methods]{ref} The three-dimensional observation addresses an extended surface, rather than assuming that a single two-dimensional slice captures its full geometry.
The <mitral coaptation index> divides the measured coaptation zone area $A_c$ by the measured valve area $A_v$:
$$
I_c=\frac{A_c}{A_v}.
$$
An original normalization example takes $A_c=0.60\,\mathrm{cm^2}$. Valve areas of 6 and $10\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ then give indices 0.10 and 0.06, respectively. Equal coaptation area need not imply an equal proportion of the valve area. These are stipulated illustrations, not individual patient measurements from the paper.
If every reconstructed length is multiplied by the same scale factor $k$, both areas multiply by $k^2$ and the index is unchanged. The ratio consequently removes that common scale dependence. It does not remove a segmentation error affecting only the coaptation zone, nor does it compensate for measuring a different cardiac phase.
The primary study found an association between the index and the severity of functional <mitral regurgitation> in its examined sample.<Quantitative assessment of mitral valve coaptation using three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography by Frederick C. Cobey and others>[Abstract, Results and Conclusions]{ref} Cobey's documented work connects an anatomical contact surface to a quantitative imaging observable. Its interpretation still depends on acquisition, surface identification and the population studied.
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