January 26, 2023, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

Make plans to attend ASE’s next webinar on Thursday, January 26, 2023, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET. Learn about what the future holds for JASE under the direction of its fourth Editor-in-Chief Patricia A. Pellikka, MD, FASE. The presentation is pre-recorded with a live Q&A session to follow. This webinar does not offer CME, and both members and nonmembers can attend for free.

Register now!

Register Now for the Live Q&A Session on CASE 1: January 23, 2023, 5:00 PM ET

The new Critical Care eCASE Series is a blended online learning activity that will cover three Critical Care eCASES through March 2023. Each case will focus on application of echocardiography and general point of care ultrasound (POCUS), to help diagnose a critically ill patient’s physiologic derangement and how serial examinations help with therapeutic management.

The first Q&A Live Session on CASE 1 will be held online on January 23 at 5:00 PM ET. It will focus on a patient with large pericardial effusion but no echocardiographic evidence of tamponade. The patient, however, had signs and symptoms of tamponade and also had renal failure and pre-existing pulmonary hypertension. The case will discuss the management of this patient.

Cardiologists, interventionalists, emergency medicine physicians, and cardiovascular sonographers are encouraged to review case presentations and participate in the three upcoming Critical Care eCASE Series Q&A live sessions. The series is free for ASE Members and $45 for nonmembers. Register in the ASE Learning Hub. Earn up to 4.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ (pending approval) for participation in the entire three-part series.

The first issue in 2023 of CASE, ASE’s open access case reports journal, is now available; this Special Issue on Echo in Valvular Heart Disease and Interventional Echo is a companion to the January JASE focus issue. In one report, Tanuka Datta, MD and colleagues from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, present two examples of the important role of interventional echocardiography during PFO closures. CASE Editor-in-Chief Dr. Vince Sorrell commented, “This CASE report reiterates the symbiotic relationship that is necessary between the proceduralist and the imaging specialist for successful clinical outcomes. In both cases, the patient had suffered a stroke, and the PFO was associated with a large shunt or an atrial septal aneurysm. The authors provide Journal readers with an excellent overview of PFO morphology and offer a standardized terminology for PFO dimensions that should improve the ability to communicate and enhance the likelihood for more optimal device selection. The CASE includes exceptional, high quality still and moving images as well as an educational table and graphic. If you have ever performed a TEE and found a PFO, you will find this report worth reading (and then keeping in your CASE file for future reference).”

This issue also includes three Echo Valvular Heart Disease reports illustrating various clinical presentations of quadricuspid aortic valve disease and a rare congenital case of unileaflet mitral valve. There are also four articles in the Interventional Echocardiography section demonstrating the value of TEE guidance in multiple scenarios and two novel transcatheter procedures. Dr. Sorrell’s editorial, “Best CASE Scenario,” provides an update on the overall state of CASE, highlighting the continued growth of the Journal, a focus on engaging sonographers, and other developments over the past year.

Also, check out the newest Sonographer Sound-Off (SSO) on the CASE Homepage, an interactive feature that provides an opportunity for sonographers to share tips and tricks they have learned in everyday practice. Congratulations to María Elena Sánchez, MD, Trinidad Mitre Institute, Roxana Ratto, MD, Cardiology Offices Doctor T. Padilla, and Mariana Corneli, MD, Institute of Cardiology La Plata, all in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for serving in the role of Sonographer and supplying the images and text for this SSO.

We hope this issue starts your new year off with a bang!

ASE is proud to support the cardiovascular ultrasound community through recognition of outstanding service, research, and training. We are happy to announce and congratulate the ASE 2023 Award Winners! These recipients will be recognized during the 34th Annual ASE Scientific Sessions in National Harbor, Maryland, June 23-26, 2023. These awards are peer-reviewed and were selected by the Awards Committee, chaired by Sherif Nagueh, MD, FASE.

PHYSICIAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Rebecca Hahn, MD, FASE – Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY

MERITORIOUS SERVICE AWARD
William Zoghbi, MD, FASE – Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX

RICHARD POPP TEACHING AWARD
Cynthia Taub, MD, FASE – Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH

CARDIOVASCULAR SONOGRAPHER DISTINGUISHED TEACHER AWARD
Richard Palma, ACS, RCCS, FACVP, FASE – Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING IN PEDIATRICS AWARD
Peter Frommelt, MD, FASE – Children’s Wisconsin/Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN PERIOPERATIVE ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY AWARD
Madhav Swaminathan, MD, MMCi, FASE – Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

ASE MENTORSHIP AWARD
Allan Klein, MD, FASE – Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Celebrating One Year as a Monthly Publication

This month marks one year since ASE’s Echo magazine increased its publishing frequency from once or twice a year to monthly. In the past year, we’ve been able to more frequently share communications from the ASE President, ASE Councils and Specialty Interest Groups, and ASE members who have contributed interesting articles or images related to cardiovascular ultrasound that are not research articles/images.

There is so much to share about our vital and essential field, and this year, we once again invite all ASE members to consider writing and submitting an article to share with your fellow members and peers. The submission deadline is the 15th of each month, and you can review the guidelines on formatting, word length, and other general information on ASE’s website. Contact Echo@ASEcho.org with questions about this online, open access publication.

Thank you to all who have submitted articles, and we can’t wait to receive your submissions in 2023!

There are only a few days left to save on registration for the 35th Annual State-of-the-Art Echocardiography™. Register by Tuesday, January 17, 2023, and save $100!

Join outstanding faculty in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona, and learn the latest on structural heart disease, myocardial and pericardial disease, coronary artery disease, interventional echocardiography, and more! Act fast if you’re interested in participating in the optional preconference Learning Lab (separate fee required). Limited registration spots remain for these intimate sessions!

A total of 31.75 AMA PRA Category 1 credits™ (pending approval) will be offered for the preconference Learning Lab (15 credits) and main course (16.75 credits). In addition to offering CME credits, this activity has been developed and registered with ACCME to provide MOC, MOC Part 2, and MOCA 2.0 credits in alignment with AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Finally, after registering, we encourage you to book your hotel reservation with the Westin Kierland as soon as possible. The hotel room block will be held until Monday, January 16, 2023, but we expect it will sell out soon. This is a beautiful property offering golf, tennis, pools, and a spa onsite.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Angie Porter
919-297-7152
aporter@ASEcho.org

American Society of Echocardiography Releases Updated Rheumatic Heart Disease Guideline

The guideline focuses on the use of echocardiography in the evaluation and management

of patients with Rheumatic Heart Disease

(DURHAM, NC, Jan. 4, 2023)—Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) pose major health problems globally and remain the most common cardiovascular disease in children and young people worldwide. Echocardiography is the most important diagnostic tool in recognizing this preventable and treatable disease. It plays an invaluable role in detecting the presence of subclinical disease and assessing the need for prompt therapy or follow-up evaluation.

The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) released a new guideline document, Recommendations for the Use of Echocardiography in the Evaluation of Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Report from the American Society of Echocardiography, which provides recommendations for the comprehensive use of echocardiography in the diagnosis and therapeutic intervention of RHD. This document was endorsed by 25 ASE International Alliance Partners and is published in the January 2023 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography.

The document is an update to previous guideline documents originally published in 2007 and 2009 that focused on valvular stenosis or valvular regurgitation etiology. This new guideline is the first document that addresses all cardiac abnormalities caused by RHD.

ASE’s lead author Natesa G. Pandian, MD, FACC, explained echocardiography is indispensable in managing the disease, and it is important for physicians to learn and teach how to apply echocardiography in the evaluation of RHD to treat patients.

“RHD is a global and regional burden in both economically constrained and advanced countries. The disease can evolve anywhere where there is a lack of sanitary conditions, access to primary care and health education,” he said. “It starts with a sore throat and fever, and if it is not recognized as a Streptococcal infection and treated, it can go on to cause rheumatic fever, cardiac inflammation, and chronic heart disease with a spectrum of debilitating lesions. Often, chronic lesions are recognized late because of slowly evolving symptoms. Echocardiography, with its multifaceted imaging approach, plays a critical role in the diagnosis, assessment of severity, detection of complications and in guiding therapy.”

This document and all guidelines published by ASE are available at ASEcho.org/Guidelines.

About American Society of Echocardiography
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is the Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals™. ASE is the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging serving physicians, sonographers, nurses, veterinarians, and scientists and as such is the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines for the field. The Society is committed to advancing cardiovascular ultrasound to improve lives. For more information, visit the ASE website ASEcho.org or social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

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PDF of news release