LEVEL I TRAINING: ELIGIBLE FOR UP TO 20 HOURS OF CME CREDITS

Course Objectives:

This course will allow the physician in cardiovascular medicine to establish the necessary basic skills for establishing CT angiography as part of an integrated practice. The course assumes that the physician will have little or negligible experiences with CT scan, but a fair knowledge of vascular anatomy. The course has two components: A CT physics and clinical practice lecture component and   a hands-on individual attention training session. At the end of the course the attendee is expected to have the following training: 

•  Will have an understanding of MSCT scanning technique. 

•  Develop knowledge in technical principles of ECG-gated cardiac CTA. 

•  Be able to identify the coronary anatomy and patient algorithms. 

•  Increase proficiency and understanding utilization of a workstation and processing CTA images. 

•  Understand the principles of cardiac CT image interpretation. 

•  Recognize limitations and weakness of CTA and patient selection, exclusion criteria.

Friday - At South Florida Medical Imaging

         7:45:      Continental Breakfast

         8:00:      Introduction                                                                                                                                                   

8:00 - 8:45:    Lecture: Principles of MSCT 

•  physics of MSCT
•  understanding the technology behind MSCT vs single slice
•  different detectors, pitch
•  challenges of acquisition - temporal and spatial resolution

8:45 - 9:15:     Lecture: Radiation  

•  understanding dose and dose modulation

9:15 - 10:15:   Lecture: Principles of Cardiac CTA  

•  understanding the coronary motion and gated technique
•  temporal resolution, fixed vs variable delay algorithms
•  adaptive multi-cycle reconstruction

10:15 - 10:30: BREAK-Snacks

10:30 - 12:00: Lecture & Scanner demonstration: Scanning technique

•  live patient scan
•  calcium score
• CTA
•  Protocols, lead placement, heart rate, breathhold technique, post-bypass, contrast issues, beta blockers

 

12:00 - 1:00:  LUNCH  

1:00 - 2:00     Lecture: Coronary anatomy - Marriott Courtyard-Boca Raton

•  radiologist -- graphics of coronary arteries and CT anatomy of the heart
•  cardiologist -- coronary anatomy and how it looks on CT

2:00 - 2:15:   BREAK-Snacks

2:15 - 5:00:    Lecture & Hands-on workstation: Workstation basics  

•  Start-up, review tools, registry, cutting tools, saving images
•  Optimizing work-flow
•  Normal Coronaries
•  Congenital Anomalies

Saturday -Marriott Courtyard-Boca Raton

7:45 am:       Continental Breakfast

8:00 - 10:15: Hands-on workstation 

•  abnormal coronaries
•  plaque analysis
•  coronary stenosis evaluation

10:15 - 10:30    BREAK-Snacks

10:30 - 12:00:   Hands-on workstation  

•  Myocardial disease
•  Valvular disease
•  Extra-cardiac disease

12:00  - 1:00:   LUNCH

 1:00 - 2: 15:   Hands-on workstation  

•  Coronary stents
•  Review of cases from the simple to the most complex
•  Wall motion analysis

2:15 - 2:30:      BREAK-Snacks

2:30 - 5:00:      Hands-on workstation  

•  Continue review of  cases

Sunday-Marriott Courtyard-Boca Raton

7:45 am:     Continental Breakfast

8:00 - 12:00:     Hands-on workstation

•  Bypass Grafts
•  Advanced workstation applications

 

12pm - 12:15:  Review and Finish

Level 2 Powercourse: ELIGIBLE FOR UP TO 40 HOURS OF CME CREDITS

The Powercourse is held at South Florida Medical Imaging

Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00 pm: review of 20 cardiac CTA cases/day, 10 non-contrast chest CT.

8-11am: review of 10 cases on a workstation

11-12:00 pm: Review of cases with  Dr. Smuclovisky

12-1:00 pm: Lunch served. Noon workshops

1-4:00 pm Review of 10 cases

4-5 pm: Review of cases with Dr. Smuclovisky

5:00 pm: Adjourn

Total cases reviewed: 100 cardiac CTA's and 50 non-contrast chest CT.

Topics covered: Normal heart and coronaries, workstation, workflow efficiency, congenital anomalies, CAD, stents, CABG, myocardial disease, aortic disease, valvular disease, extracardiac disease, pulmonary artery disease and more.  

At least three noon workshops will be held to include the following topics: improving your workstation skills, extracardiac CT, fine tuning the acquisition and post-processing of a scan.