You will not want to miss the 33rd Annual State-of-the-Art Echocardiography, February 21-24, 2020 in Scottsdale, AZ. This spectacular course follows the themes of structural heart disease, myocardial and pericardial disease, coronary artery disease, and interventional echocardiography. Over 100 cases will be presented by the expert faculty including Drs. Bijoy Khandheria, Roberto Lang, and William Zoghbi.

Scottsdale, Arizona, with blue skies and first-class education, awaits you. Learn more here, download the Final Program, and register today.

The February JASE contains a pre-clinical investigation, “Left Ventricular Longitudinal Strain as a Marker for Point of No Return in Hypertensive Heart Failure Treatment,” written by Tomoko Ishizu, MD, PhD, Yoshihiro Seo, MD, PhD, Mikiko Namekawa, MSc, Nobuyuki Murakoshi, MD, PhD, Masaki Ieda, MD, PhD, and Yasushi Kawakami, MD, PhD. Dr. Seo shares with JASE readers that, “We investigated when is the “point of no return” (PNR) or point when response to ACE-inhibitor therapy is less effective in the hypertensive heart failure model in the rat. We revealed that the combination of longitudinal and circumferential strain could identify the PNR and the period just before the PNR.” Another pre-clinical article explores how therapeutic ultrasound improves myocardial blood flow and reduces infarct size in a canine model of coronary microthromboembolism.

Clinical investigations in the issue feature echocardiography in heart failure, implications of diastolic function assessed by echocardiography, intraoperative echocardiography, improving the measurement of the tricuspid valve annulus, detection of patent foramen ovale, and echocardiography in children. Brief research communications and a letter to the editor cover cardiac remodeling in middle-aged endurance athletes and recreationally active individuals, variability in echo ascending aortic diameters due to image acquisition by different sonographers, 2D speckle-tracking echo of the left ventricle rotational mechanics during postnatal adaptation in healthy newborns, and system-wide echo accreditation from the physician perspective.

The President’s Message by Madhav Swaminathan, MD, MMCi, FASE, explores ASE’s essential collaboration between its human and veterinary medical professionals. Marjan Miri, BS, RDCS, writes in the Sonographers’ Communication about ASE’s Rising Stars, and Kimberly Howard-Quijano, MD, MS, author of this month’s COPE communication, looks at the perioperative use of strain echocardiography.

Providing outstanding and accessible educational opportunities to our members and the entire cardiovascular ultrasound community is core to ASE’s mission. Echo Access™, A Virtual Experience, is an innovative way for ASE to widen the reach of education. There are many benefits to attending an educational course in person like networking with peers and expert faculty, social events, and focused time for learning in a beautiful location, but we realize traveling is not always convenient for everyone.

On March 6-8, 2020, ASE will present the inaugural Echo Access, A Virtual Experience featuring content from ASE’s State-of-the-Art Echocardiography live course. A maximum of 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ will be available for attending this three-day virtual event. Streaming content will be approximately four hours each day from 3:00 – 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Some faculty will be available during these presentations to answer questions live. Registration also includes access to this content for 30 days. Participants can choose one of two virtual experience paths. For more information and to register, click here.

Plan to join Patricia A. Pellikka, MD, FASE, ASE Past President, for a LIVE webinar on Wednesday, February 5, 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST as she reviews the ASE Guidelines for Performance, Interpretation, and Application of Stress Echocardiography in Ischemic Heart Disease. Click here to find out when the webinar is taking place in your time zone.

At the end of this webinar, the viewer will be better able to:

• Understand the current recommended methods for performing exercise and pharmacologic stress echocardiography
• Characterize the stress modality specific differences in left ventricular responses in the presence and absence of ischemia
• Interpret examples of stress echocardiography for assessment of ischemia in common clinical settings
• Appreciate the role of quantitative regional assessment, including deformation imaging, in stress echocardiography
• Understand the indications for stress echocardiography, including its application in children and young adults

Registration is FREE for ASE members and $25 for nonmembers. You can claim 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ after the webinar is recorded and posted.

Interested in this topic, but the scheduled time is not convenient for you? Register for the live webinar and an email will be sent to you once the recorded webinar is available in your account on ASEUniversity.

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) are pleased to announce that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have approved the ImageGuide Registry® as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for 2020. The designation as a QCDR allows the ImageGuide Registry to submit provider data to meet reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for the 2020 reporting year. Successful participation in MIPS will allow physicians to avoid an automatic negative payment adjustment on all Medicare receivables. Read more here.

CASE, ASE’s online, open access case reports journal, kicks off its fourth year of publishing with the debut of FREE CME for ASE members. Each activity includes four articles published in CASE, and offers 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. ASE and CASE’s Editorial Team are excited to announce that Andy Pellett, PhD, RCS, RDCS, FASE, from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, is CASE’s CME Editor.

The four articles in this initial CME opportunity are all related to pediatric and congenital heart disease. These activities include:

• A Case of Full-Term Infant With Symptomatic Patent Ductus Arteriosus Successfully Closed With Indomethacin Treatment: Consideration of Mechanism for Ductus Arteriosus Closure
• Giant Thrombotic Right Coronary Aneurysm in an Infant with Undiagnosed Incomplete Kawasaki Disease and Rapidly Progressive Cardiovascular Collapse
• Isolated Endocarditis of Native Pulmonary Valve in a Pediatric Patient: The Unusual within the Unusual
• Prenatal Detection of Anomalous Right Coronary Artery with an Interarterial Course

Interact with your colleagues in our next Twitter Journal Club on Tuesday, January 21, from 8:00 – 9:00 PM US EST. January’s Twitter Journal Club will review the case, Percutaneous Repair of Severe Eccentric MR Due to Medial Commissural Flail: Challenges for Imaging and Intervention. Co-Author Stephen H. Little, MD, FASE as well as Nadeen Faza, MD, will join moderator, Ritu Thamman, MD, FASE, during this month’s Journal club.

NEW! As an ASE member, you can now receive FREE CME for participating. Register here BEFORE the Twitter Journal Club to guarantee your free CME.

Follow @ASE360, and please plan to join ASE’s journal club. Be sure to use the hashtag #ASEchoJC for all tweets. Click here to find out when the Twitter Journal Club is taking place in your timezone. If you have any questions on this event, please contact us here