Advances in Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac CT and Cardiac MRI: 34th Annual Case Review with the Experts

Advances in Nuclear Cardiology, Cardiac CT and Cardiac MRI: 34th Annual Case Review with the Experts is organized by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and will be held from Jan 18 - 20, 2019 at Cedars Sinai Medical Center Harvey Morse Conference Center South Tower, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.

The target audience for this medical event is Cardiologists, Nuclear Medicine, Radiologists. This CME Conference has been approved for a maximum of 25.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.

Conference Description:
A major national healthcare imperative for noninvasive imaging is for the tests that are used provide value. Nuclear cardiology, cardiac CT and cardiac MRI studies provide powerful tools for diagnosis, risk assessment, and guiding management of selected patients with known or suspected cardiac disease. In the current environment, imaging must address the combined considerations of improving outcomes and containing costs. To this end, advanced cardiac imaging studies must be ordered on the right patients and optimally performed, interpreted, reported, and acted upon by physicians and allied health professionals. Additionally, effective methods to reduce radiation exposure need to be implemented to maximize patient safety. There is a clear need of physicians performing, interpreting and those who order the tests to understand the issues regarding value-based imaging and to optimally implement this understanding.

The course is designed to meet the current needs of professionals who perform or request nuclear cardiology, cardiac CT or cardiac MRI studies. The course covers the use of these modalities across the spectrum of patients routinely seen by cardiologists in typical day-to-day practice.

Conference Topics:
Course will include topics in:
• SPECT and PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI)
• Clinical applications of Nuclear Cardiology
• New and future developments in PET and SPECT
• Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT
• Cardiac MRI, practice trends and best articles of 2018

Conference Objectives are:
• Implement latest protocols for acquisition and processing, including the use of instrumentation and software, to provide optimal quality studies
• Reduce radiation exposure to patients by implementing new acquisition protocols and reconstruction methods
• Identify the strengths and limitations of the modalities and select the test best suited to the needs of individual physicians and their patients
• Demonstrate improved skills in image interpretation, including the recognition of imaging artifacts, and create optimal reports that integrate test findings with clinical information
• Select patients for imaging studies based on appropriate use criteria to reduce the frequency of inappropriate tests and increase the use of appropriate tests
• Recommend or suggest change in patient management following testing so the test information can be optimally used to improve patient outcomes
• Analyze the clinical settings in which the studies provide value in terms of outcomes and cost
• Utilize most contemporary approaches to pharmacologic stress
• Improve skills in semi-quantitative and quantitative methods of interpretation, including assessment of absolute coronary blood flow
• Utilize the combination of myocardial perfusion and ventricular function information from gated MPI procedures more effectively
• Utilize in practice the ability of ischemia shown by SPECT and PET-MPI to guide management decisions regarding coronary revascularization
• Identify applications of new myocardial perfusion and adrenergic nervous system imaging agents and the potential of nuclear cardiology for molecular imaging
• Discuss the extensive evidence base supporting the use of cardiac CT in a wide variety of settings
• Assess the use of coronary artery calcium scanning in prevention of coronary artery disease
• Identify the underlying principles of cardiac CT and the ways in which cardiac CT can examine coronary arteries, other aspects of cardiac structure, function, and extracardiac findings
• Recognize how the assessment of coronary artery plaque can add to coronary stenosis in assessing prognosis and predicting the likelihood of an acute coronary event
• Discuss the methods by which cardiac CT can simultaneously assess coronary anatomy as well as the physiologic significance of coronary stenosis (eg. CP perfusion & FFRct)
• Utilize CT for non-coronary studies to guide treatment planning of TAVR
• Evaluate the capabilities of Cardiac MRI and the evidence supporting its use
• Identify the specific circumstances for which Cardiac MRI is the test of choice