1st Stress Echocardiography Course

The program encompassed a mix of:

• More than 100 Stress Echo cases,
• Hands-on sessions in virtual workstations in participants screens, guided and supervised by the instructors,
• Video recordings of our echo labs everyday work and
• Exams based on multiple-choice questions

The participants had the opportunity to:

• review the principles and the role of Stress echocardiography in the evaluation of coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies and valvular heart disease.
• gain hands on experience with images acquisition and stress echo studies interpretation
• get familiar with all types of Stress Echocardiography i.e. Pharmacological stress and Supine Ergometric bicycle and the use of contrast agents and gain knowledge about the role of advanced echo techniques (myocardial deformation imaging, 3D echo, CFR) in stress echocardiography

Scientific programme

Thursday 5/11/2020

12:00 - 12:45 Registration

12.45 - 13:00 Welcome and Introduction

13.00 – 14.15: Stress echo procedure - Basics
13.00 – 13.15: Indications and contra-indications for stress echo (D. Klettas)
13.15 – 13.35: Before stress echo (Ν. Kadoglou)
- Lab set-up and drugs
- Informed consent
- Patient’s preparation
- Safety measures
13.35 – 13.55: During stress echo (C. Papadopoulos)
Protocols of stress echo:
Α. Pharmaceutical stress echo
Β. Exercise stress echo
Image acquisition and analysis
13.55 – 14.15: After stress echo (S. Karagiannis)
- Criteria for protocol completion
- Potential complications and their management
- Patient’s care and information
- How to write a Report

14.15 - 14.45: Lunch

14.45 – 15.45: Application of novel imaging techniques in stress echo
14.45 – 15.00: Contrast agents (N. Kadoglou)
15.00 – 15.15: Speckle Tracking & 3D (S. Karagiannis)
15.15 – 15.30: Coronary flow reserve (CFR) (C. Papadopoulos)
15.30 – 15.45: Discussion
15.45 – 16.45: Stress echo and coronary artery disease
15.45– 16.05: Coronary artery disease – diagnosis (S. Karagiannis)
16.05 – 16.25: Viability study and pitfalls in special conditions (LBBB, microvascular disease etc) (D. Klettas)
16.25 – 16.45: Stress echo for risk stratification, patient’s prognosis and pre-operative evaluation (N. Kadoglou)

16.45 – 17.00: Coffee break

17.00 – 19.00: Hands-on session / Cases on workstations

Friday 6/11/2020

09.00 – 14.00 Echo lab - Live hands-on session

14.00 - 15.00: Lunch

15.00 – 16.20 Stress Echo in valvular heart diseases
15.00 – 15.20: Mitral Stenosis (D. Klettas)
15.20 – 15.40: Mitral regurgitation (N. Kadoglou)
15.40 – 16.00: Aortic stenosis (S. Karagiannis)
16.00 – 16.20: Aortic regurgitation (C. Papadopoulos)

16.20 - 16.35: Coffee break

16.35 – 19.00: Hands-on session / Cases on workstations

Saturday 7/11/2020

09.00 – 14.00: Echo lab - Live hands-on session

14.00-15.00: Lunch

15.00 – 16.20: Stress Echo in heart failure and cardiomyopathies
15.00 – 15.20: Ischemic heart failure (C. Papadopoulos)
15.20 – 15.40: Non-ischemic heart failure - Cardiomyopathies (S. Karagiannis)
15.40 – 16.00: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (D. Klettas)
16.00 – 16.20: Pulmonary hypertension, unexplained dyspnea (N. Kadoglou)

16.20 - 16.35: Coffee break

16.35 – 19.00: Hands-on session / Cases on workstations

Sunday 8/11/2020

09.00 – 10.00: Interactive session with comments, conclusions and summarized take home messages

10.00 – 14.00: Exam test and results discussion