Cardiology III

Course Overview

This veterinary course is designed to give the practitioner a basic understanding of small animal echocardiography. Major topics include ultrasound principles, normal cardiac anatomy and physiology, techniques for achieving quality results, case presentations of important diseases and hands-on scanning of normal dogs.
Skills taught in this course include further-on pulse wave Doppler, continuous wave Doppler, color flow Doppler, special measurements and calculations and applying the Bernoulli equation to clinical cases.
The participants will rotate in the afternoon in hands-on sessions through different stations with experienced instructors where individual coaching of how to obtain echocardiographic views and measurements taught in the morning lectures is the main focus.
The ECHO-Lab station focuses on pattern recognition and will present computer based Echo case presentations of clinical cases that will be solved interactive by the participants guided by an instructor. Therefore many important cardiac diseases will be seen by the participants.

Topics

Echocardiography – general topics and case examples of this veterinary course in cardiology:

Update on recent clinical studies concerning diagnostic tests
Interactive (difficult) ECG Cases
Interactive (difficult) case examples to apply pressure calculations using CW-Doppler
PISA (proximal isovelocity surface area) to assess severity of valvular insufficiencies, regurgitation-volume and –fraction
Hands on echocardiography (individual coaching) and Echo lab
Echocardiography – Doppler

Update on recent clinical studies concerning treatment options
Diastolic function: Principles and echocardiographic correlates of relaxation, compliance, volume, and filling pressure
Tissue Doppler Imaging basics. Tissue velocity, Strain, Strain Rate: technical aspects, different methods, pitfalls
Doppler Echocardiography: value of Doppler to predict congestive heart failure and to assess HCM stag
Hands on echocardiography (individual coaching) and Echo lab
Echocardiography – Systolic function

Quantitative echocardiography: calculation of stroke volume and cardiac output
Utilizing echocardiography to guide therapy – case examples
Tissue Doppler imaging to assess systolic function – clinical applications
Advanced echocardiographic assessment of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary fibrosis treatment
Hands on echocardiography (individual coaching) and Echo lab
Congenital heart disease: Echo diagnosis, hemodynamics, and treatment

Complex congenital malformations…
Cardiac Jeopardy – Congenital heart disease
Interactive solving of cool Echo cases – where a diagnosis is not so easy
Hands on echocardiography (individual coaching) and Echo lab
Acquired heart disease: From diagnosis to treatment

Cool ECG cases – where a diagnosis is not so easy…
Myocarditis and Endocarditis: Echo diagnosis
Echocardiographic Assessment of Left Ventricular and Mitral Valve Geometry in Cats with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Hands on echocardiography (individual coaching) and Echo lab

Course Program (Subject to change)