Archives for March 2023

Deadline: April 15, 2023

Are you planning to attend ASE’s 34^th Annual Scientific Sessions? Apply for an ASEF Council Travel Grant! The application deadline is Saturday, April 15. 

Each spring, ASEF funds Council Travel Grants for trainees and others to support their attendance at ASE’s annual Scientific Sessions. These grants are part of an ongoing effort by ASEF and the Council Steering Committees to encourage individuals interested in cardiovascular specialties to focus on the respective echocardiography subspecialty and to recruit enthusiastic new members to the ASE Councils. 

The Council Travel Grant application is open for all six ASE Councils:

• Cardiovascular Sonography Council
• Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound Council
• Critical Care Echocardiography Council
• Interventional Echocardiography Council
• Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Council
• Perioperative Echocardiography Council

The March 2023 Echo magazine is now online! This issue contains an article honoring world-renowned clinician and ASE’s Past President Bijoy Khandheria, MD, FASE, and interesting articles written by ASE Members, including:

• Sonographer Challenges Today, page 4
• Meet Me at the 2023 ASE Scientific Sessions National Harbor: Foundations and the Future of Cardiovascular Ultrasound, page 7
• Sonographer Volunteer of the Month-March, Congratulations Cody Frye, BA, RDCS, FASE, page 10
• Critical Care Echocardiography and Consultative Echocardiography: More Alike Than Not, page 12
• Global Health Work–Echocardiography Around the World!, page 15
• Getting Started in Perioperative Echocardiography-Related Research: The Why, When, and How, page 20
• Progress Through Partnership: Perspectives from Pediatric Disciplines on the ASE Recommendations for Cardiac Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Children, page 23
• Perioperative Echocardiography – Novel Applications in a New Environment, page 28

ASE members can write and submit articles to Echo magazine for publication. The article submission deadline for the June 2023 issue is April 15. Visit ASE’s website to review the author guidelines requirements on formatting, word length, etc. Contact Echo@ASEcho.org with questions and view past issues at ASEcho.org/EchoMagazine.

The ASE Foundation’s March Games ends on April 2, but there’s still time to support your team with a donation! We encourage you to also celebrate Women’s History Month by donating in honor of the important women in your life. Include a tribute message and send their picture to Foundation@ASEcho.org, and we’ll post it online!

Does your team have what it takes?! The Cardiovascular Sonography Council Steering Committee continues to increase its lead! As of March 27, they have raised $495. In second is the Interventional Echocardiography (IE) Council Steering Committee with $320. The Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound Council Steering Committee and Emerging Echo Enthusiast (E3) Specialty Interest Group have yet to make a basket. It’s not too late to get in on the action!

ASE and the ASE Foundation are pleased to announce that Marielle Scherrer-Crosbie, MD, PhD, FASE, Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, is the recipient of the $1.1M USD Impact of Echocardiography Report Recommendations on Referral Patterns and Outcome in Patients with Severe Valvular Heart Disease (SVD) grant. The grant, which is awarded by ASE through its Foundation with funding support from Edwards Lifesciences, will examine the impact of embedded echocardiography report interventions on referral patterns and outcomes in patients newly diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis (AS) by echocardiography.

ASE made the decision to provide this funding opportunity as a result of the growth in numbers of patients presenting with AS. ASE believes that the diagnosis, referral, and treatment for these patients needs to be optimized to lower healthcare costs and increase positive patient outcomes. Dr. Scherrer-Crosbie’s research will examine the role of a primary care provider and referral patterns to a cardiac specialist for patients presenting with severe AS, though the study may be expanded to include other forms of SVD.

ASE’s ASCeXAM/ReASCE Review Course: Virtual Experience is specifically designed for physicians sitting for the ASCeXAM® or the ReASCE® examinations, but it is also a great course for physicians and sonographers interested in a broad review of cardiovascular ultrasound.

You can register now, and online access to pre-recorded presentations of the entire course, including physics, will be available beginning Monday, May 8, 2023. Registrants will have unlimited on-demand access to the content through August 6, 2023. The expert faculty, led by Vera Rigolin, MD, FASE, and Muhamed Saric, MD, PhD, FASE, will also lead two live two-hour Q&A sessions on Saturday, July 8, 2023, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET and 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM ET. Earn 28.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (pending approval).

Happy Spring, happy Women’s History Month, and happy March Games from the ASE Foundation!

In the spirit of friendly competition, ASEF is hosting a March Games fundraiser to kick-start our 2023 Annual Appeal. This donation competition runs through April 2. We encourage you to support your team of choice AND celebrate Women’s History Month by donating in honor of the important women in your life on the ASEF website.

Does your team have what it takes?! The competition is starting to heat up. The Interventional Echocardiography (IE) Council Steering Committee recently took the lead with $320. The Cardiovascular Sonography Council Steering Committee is not too far behind with $270. The Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound Council Steering Committee and Emerging Echo Enthusiast (E3) Specialty Interest Group have yet to make a basket but there’s still time!

Donations will be accepted online until April 2, and remember, make your donation in honor of an important woman in your life. Include a tribute message and send their picture to Foundation@ASEcho.org, and we’ll post it online!

The Alliance for Physician Certification and Advancement (APCA) administers the Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation (RPVI®) examination to allow physicians, fellows, and radiologists to test and demonstrate their knowledge of echocardiography based on an objective standard. ASE’s new Registered Physician Vascular Interpretation Online Review Course will help individuals prepare for the RPVI exam by providing access to expert-led lectures featuring cases and practice exam questions. The course covers a variety of vascular ultrasound physics and concepts that will help participants understand how to read and interpret vascular imaging. It also highlights diagnostic criteria to identify the appropriate lab imaging.

The online review course costs $500 for ASE members and $600 for nonmembers. To receive member pricing, remember to log in to your ASE Member Portal before accessing the Learning Hub. Participants can earn 9.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™.

The latest issue of CASE, ASE’s open access case reports journal, is now available with some insightful reports, including “Rupture of Sinus of Valsalva Causing Fistula Between Left Coronary Sinus and Left Atrium” by Sachiyo Igata, PhD, ACS, RDCS, FASE, Calvin T. Hang, MD, PhD, Andrew Y. Lin, MD, et. al. CASE Editor-in-Chief, Vincent L. Sorrell, MD, FASE, remarked, “In a beautifully written CASE report, which includes a sonographer lead-author and a past-ASE president senior author, Journal readers are able to travel along with the authors as they demonstrate the value of echo even when an incorrect interpretation of the image initially occurs. This patient has a very rare fistula between the aorta and the LA which was not readily apparent. Given the discrepant clinical and imaging findings (e.g., physical exam, echo, and cardiac cath), you learn along with the authors as they carefully present how to re-evaluate your initial interpretation by including additional relevant clinical and hemodynamic findings. This paramount approach is obligatory to enhance your success in the echo lab and this CASE dutifully reiterates this mantra. In total, this is another must-read CASE that I am certain you will enjoy.”

This issue contains several other reports including a second paper in the Congenital Heart Disease category highlighting the importance of serial TTEs in navigating the evolution of a congenital aneurysmal ventricular septum. Additionally, there are two Infections in the Heart cases on endocarditis and two in the Cardiac Tumors and Pseudotumors category, featuring a study of cardiac masses in dizygotic twins, and two Valvular Heart Disease reports. Dr. Sorrell’s editorial revisits December’s Should Doppler Always be Capitalized?, with stimulating commentary and historical perspectives on Doppler and BART/RABT color displays by Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE and J. Geoffrey Stevenson, MD, FASE.

Topics from March’s issue are as diverse as its contributors — Dr. Sorrell notes that 50% of this issue’s reports featured sonographers as lead or contributing authors. Be sure to check out the latest Sonographer Sound-Off and Unlock the CASE features on the CASE Homepage to engage off the page.

Looking for a journal with the best author experience to submit your case report? CASE has received rave reviews from recently published authors, one of whom noted, “I have published in other journals before but never had such an efficient and responsive editorial team.” Another author remarked, “The Editor’s questions and comments prompted us to delve deeper into the subject matter and produce something that was very unique.” Email us with questions or submit your report today!