The 28th Annual ASE Scientific Sessions are right around the corner. There are less than two months to register and make your arrangements to join us in Baltimore June 2-6. The premier gathering of echo enthusiasts, this meeting is essential to keeping up with all the advances in the field!

As always, the Sessions are packed with exciting content, but the Program Planning Committee shared a few sessions you will not want to miss:

• Advances in Molecular and Therapeutic Applications – Learn how ultrasound contrast users will become non-invasive surgeons in the next 10 years using contrast to diagnose and treat acute intravascular and microvascular disorders such as acute myocardial infarction and refractory ischemia.
• If I Only Had A Heart – Mechanical Device Support – More and more patients have Ventricular Assist Devices. The essentials of imaging patients with VADs will be presented in this session.
• Something’s Got A Hold of My Heart: Interventional Echocardiography – The role of echocardiography continues to grow in structural heart disease. Learn the basics of imaging in this arena.
• Frontiers in Pediatric Echocardiography: What Advances Could Impact the Field? – See the cutting-edge and evolving echo technologies that may change the way we practice pediatric and congenital cardiology. These technologies are equally applicable and relevant to adult cardiology.
• The Coming Storm: Ultrasound for the Assessment of Atherosclerosis – The vascular track keynote session, featuring a lecture from Dr. Valentin Fuster, will focus on the role vascular imaging can play in preparation for the coming storm of atherosclerosis disease burden which threatens to overwhelm our healthcare system.

Need help justifying your attendance? Download this Attendance Justification Toolkit to help make your case for attending.
Register today to join your friends and colleagues at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

There is still time to purchase tables and individual tickets for the ASE Foundation Research Awards Gala, Saturday, June 3, 7-11 PM, at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. This event is the Foundation’s largest annual fundraising event to garner funding for cardiovascular ultrasound research. Please be sure to purchase your table or tickets soon as this event has sold out each year.  Tickets will not be available on site. Questions?  Contact gala@asecho.org.

“Our fellows are one of our greatest assets and are the future of our field. I have invited my imaging fellows to join my table at the ASEF gala to show my appreciation for their work and the benefits of being a member of ASE. Please join me by doing the same for your fellows!” – Vera Rigolin, MD, FASE, ASE President-Elect, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL

Read release here.

Register before March 29th for this year’s Review Course and save $100. The Review Course has been specifically designed by ASE as a preparatory course for the National Board of Echocardiography, Inc.™ ASCeXAM® and ReASCE® examinations. The expert faculty, led by Roberto Lang, MD, FASE, will emphasize illustrative cases and will use case studies, lectures, and interactive sessions to cover all aspects of cardiovascular ultrasound that are essential to these exams. New this year, the faculty will walk you through ASCeXam questions after each session in addition to an audience response system that will facilitate faculty interaction and self-guided learning. Please plan to join us at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, April 29 – May 2, 2017 for this intensive review course. Download the Advance Program, register, and learn more at ASEcho.org/ReviewCourse.

This month, ASEMarketPlace is featuring ASE’s Guideline Reference e-Book. This online e-Book offers a convenient format for quick reference to a collection of charts and illustrations derived from ASE’s guidelines for cardiovascular ultrasound. This e-Book contains a visual representation of 15 ASE Guidelines. It is a valuable resource for both physicians and technicians, covering a wide variety of topics including Chamber Quantification, 3D, TEE, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and more!

Designed to immediately include new guideline illustrations as they are published, this resource will effortlessly keep your lab up-to-date. ASE members save $25 annually on ASE’s Guideline Reference e-Book and receive a discount on all products, so do not forget to login to the member portal  before purchasing.

The ASE Foundation is welcoming the first day of Spring by holding its second annual Spring Giving Day on Monday, March 20! Join us as we spring into action for this year’s Annual Appeal with a goal to raise $5,000 in 24 hours. Every gift – $15, $25, $50, or any amount that is right for you – brings us closer to our target.

Your gift on Spring Giving Day will foster the future of echocardiography by supporting scholarships and travel grants to young professionals in the field. Each and every gift you give to the ASE Foundation makes a difference in the projects you support and the people you help. 100% of all giving is allocated to charitable projects. Learn more here.

The ASE 2017 Scientific Sessions is the perfect place to obtain an in-depth understanding of the newest ASE Guidelines and learn how you can implement them in your practice. Many of the lead authors have been incorporated into the program to personally give their advice on using the new standards. Talks on specific recommendations include, Evidence Based Echo from Abstracts, by Chair of the Transposition of the Great Arteries Guidelines, Meryl S. Cohen, MD, FASE, and Diastology Boot Camp and Diastolic Function: From Invasive to Noninvasive Assessment by Diastolic Function Chair, Sherif Nagueh, MD, FASE. You can also hear from Thomas R. Porter, MD, FASE who will discuss Contrast – the New Millennium and Jack Rychik, MD who will present The Circle of Life in Congenital Heart Disease. Other hot topics include Valvular Stenosis, Valvular Regurgitation, Strain, Aortic Disease, A Care Pathway for Echo Year One Post Myocardial Infarction, Left Ventricular Diastolic Function, and Fetal Echo. Register today to join us at the 28th Annual Scientific Sessions in Baltimore, June 2- 6. Download the Advance Program and the Attendance Justification document to help you make the case for attending the largest cardiovascular ultrasound conference this year.

“Mechanical Dispersion by Strain Echocardiography: A Novel Tool to Diagnose Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Athletes,” appears in the March issue of JASE, which is now available online. “The diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in athletes is often challenging. Indeed, due to a less severe phenotype, athletes with HCM have frequently a normal global longitudinal strain (GLS). Nevertheless, the use of sub-maximal exercise or mechanical dispersion, assessed by standard deviation of time to maximal myocardial shortening of longitudinal strain, seems to be more robust tools for the diagnosis of HCM in this specific population,” said the article’s lead author Frédéric Schnell, MD, PhD, from the Department of Sport Medicine, Pontchaillou Hospital in Rennes, France.

This issue also includes articles on pediatric echocardiography, left ventricular function in various disorders, left atrial volume, coronary artery disease, Anderson-Fabry disease, and patent foramen ovale.

Don’t miss your opportunity to apply for travel support to attend the ASE Scientific Sessions in Baltimore! Applications are now being accepted for Council Travel Grants to support trainees’ attendance at the annual meeting. Eight grants of $1,000 each will be awarded. Visit ASEFoundation.org/council-travel-grants for more information and to apply. Application closes April 1.