Course features:
- Hands-on, with your personal virtual workstation for 6 days
- Interactive, with walkthroughs and quizzes
- You report at least 150 scans
- Vendor-neutral: no lock-in to a specific manufacturer
- Endorsed by SCCT
- Eligible for 46 credits in accordance with the CPD scheme by the Royal College of Radiologists, UK
The course is carefully designed to provide ideal active training while simultaneously helping towards meeting the requirements for Level 2 competence as defined in the ACCF/AHA clinical competence statement guidelines.
You do not need prior Level 1 competence. This course will build your knowledge, ability and confidence and help you become an independent cardiac CT practitioner.
The analysis techniques you will learn will ready you for a variety of CT and PACS software vendors.
The course is held over 6 days, providing ample time for detailed image review with each case demonstrated by a level 3 trainer (SCCT/EACVI).
Core didactic lectures are recorded and will be made available before the virtual course, ensuring the maximum time for case review.
The didactic lectures cover:
- Patient and scanner setup
- Technical principles of multi-slice CT and its application to imaging the heart
- Different gating techniques, their advantages and limitations
- Image acquisition and reconstruction
- Radiation dose inherent in cardiac CT as well as dose reduction strategies.
- Contrast injection techniques
- Contrast kinetics, administration, contraindications and complications
- Cardiac anatomy and physiology as applicable to CT
- Techniques of image reconstruction and post-processing
- Techniques to minimize and reduce image artefacts
- Cardiovascular risk assessment
- Current indications and applications of cardiac CT
- Cardiac CT interpretation
- Anatomy of the heart and thorax
You will see live-recorded cases and discuss interactively the key practical points and pick up tips and tricks to produce the best quality images at the lowest doses. Group size is limited to ensure adequate interaction with the faculty and to optimise the learning experience.
Day 1: Anatomy, Calcium and Anomalies
08:00 - 08:30 Arrival Tea/Coffee and Registration
08:30 - 10:00 Workstation use and cardiac anatomy
10:30 -10:45 Break
10:45 -11:45 Coronary anatomy and standard nomenclature
11:45 -12:45 Physics of cardiac CT and reducing the radiation dose
12:45 -13:30 Lunch
13:30 -14:15 Patient Preparation, Cardiac Drugs and Protocols
14:15 -14:45 Live case demonstration
14:45 -15:30 Calcium scoring
15:30 -16:00 Break
16:00 -16:30 Workstation session 1: Calcium scoring
17:00 -17:30 Coronary Artery Anomalies
17:30 -18:00 Workstation session 2: Interpretation of coronary anomalies
Day 2: Core coronary artery disease
08:00-10:00 Review method (3D card) and advanced workstation use
10:00-13:00 Workstation session 3: Native coronary artery disease
13:00-14:00 “lunch and lecture” -- Applications of Cardiac CT
14:00-15:30 Workstation session 4: Native coronary artery disease
15:30-15:45 Break
15:45-18:00 Workstation session 5: Native coronary artery disease and live case demonstration
Day 3: Advanced coronary artery disease
08:00 - 08:30 Image optimization
08:30 - 09:30 Recap of cardiac anatomy and the 17 segment model
09:30 - 11:00 Workstation session 6: Native coronary artery disease and live case demonstration
11:00 -11:15 Break
11:15 - 13:00 Workstation session 7: Native coronary artery disease including CTO and infarction
13:00 - 14:00 "lunch and workshop" -- Advanced workstation techniques
14:00 - 14:45 Cardiac Stents and CABG
14:45 - 15:30 Workstation session 8: interpretation of stents
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:00 Workstation session 9: interpretation of stents
17:00 - 18:00 Review method of CABG and Interpretation of CABG
Day 4: CABG, Aorta and CT FFR
08:00 - 11:00 Workstation session 10 Interpretation of CABG
11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 13:00 Workstation session 11: Interpretation of CABG and mixed CAD cases including Infarction
13:00 -14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 14:45 Acute Aortic Syndrome Lecture
14:45 - 15:30 Workstation session 12: Aortic pathologies and acute aortic syndrome
15:30 - 16:00 Break
16:00 - 17:00 Stress imaging and CT FFR Lecture
17:00 - 18:00 Workstation session 13: Assessment of cardiac function and advanced workstation use
Day 5: TAVI, Dilated right heart, and Congenital heart disease
08:00 - 09:30 TAVI assessment and annular measurements
09:30 - 11:00 Workstation session 14: TAVI assessment and valve disease
11:00 - 11:30 Break
11:30 - 16:00 Workstation session 15: TAVI assessment and valve disease
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch
14:00 - 15:00 Dilated right heart, pulmonary hypertension and triple rule out lecture
15:00 - 16:00 Workstation session 16: dilated right heart and basic congenital heart disease
16:00 - 16:15 Break
16:15 -18:00 Workstation session 17: basic congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathies
Day 6: Pericardium, Masses and Test Cases
08:00 - 09:30 Pericardium and cardiac masses
09:30 - 10:45 Workstation session 18: interpretation of the pericardium and cardiac masses
10:45 - 11:00 Break
11:00 - 13:00 Workstation session 19:extra cardiac findings and miscellaneous
13:00 - 14:00 -- “lunch and lecture” -- Extra cardiac findings
14:00 - 15:00 Recap and review of cases
15:00 - 15:15 Break
15:15 - 16:15 Test cases
16:15 - 17:30 Accrediting in cardiac CT
17:30 - 18:00 Conclusion and questions
About Speaker
- Dr Ben Ariff
SCCT Level 3 Trainer, Imperial College, Healthcare NHS Trust, United Kingdom
Dr Ben Ariff is a level 3 accredited trainer in both cardiac CT (SCCT/EACVI) and CMR (SCMR/EACVI) and is a dedicated cardiac radiologist working at Imperial College, London.
He is a fellow of SMCR, SCCT and EACVI. Working across all vendor platforms in both CT and CMR on a regular basis, Dr Ariff understands the practicalities of service set up, staff training and image optimization.
Dr Ariff is trained in radiology, clinical pharmacology and general internal medicine, providing him an ability to communicate the important aspects of each case to both cardiologists and radiologists in a clinically relevant fashion. Having taught on multiple courses, he brings his experience and unique insight to our courses in a way that is easily understandable, practical and enjoyable.
