EURO-LEARN
The European Increasing Awareness of Nuclear Scintigraphy in Cardiac Amyloidosis (EURO-LEARN) is an initiative with the aim to provide a forum for professionals that are involved in the management of patients with Cardiac Amyloidosis (CA) at every stage of their career, where to find a training and awarding opportunity to increase their awareness and improve their practice on the use of nuclear scintigraphy with bone-seeking radiopharmaceuticals in the diagnostic work-up along with other multimodality imaging techniques. The focus lies on transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). The main focus of this project is Europe as a whole, where 99mTc-DPD and 99mTc-HMDP are the most widely used radiopharmaceuticals in Europe.
This project is kindly supported by the European School of Multimodality Imaging & Therapy (ESMIT), the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) and is also kindly supported by an unrestricted education grant from Pfizer.
Goals and objectives:
- To learn when to refer a patient with Cardiac Amyloidosis to scintigraphy with bone-seeking radiopharmaceuticals and what to expect from the results of the procedure
- To learn image acquisition protocols and post-processing of 99mTc-DPD and 99mTc-HMDP scintigraphy and SPECT/CT in Cardiac Amyloidosis
- To learn visual and semiquantitative image interpretation criteria
- To learn the standard reporting system of 99mTc-DPD and 99mTc-HMDP scintigraphy and SPECT/CT in Cardiac Amyloidosis
- To understand imaging pitfalls, recognise false positives and negative findings
- To improve communication of scan results between the referring physician and the patients
- To provide practical instructions for referring physicians and patients
Online course format and lengths:
This freely accessible online course will take place online for a period of 9 months, starting in October 2021. The course will be divided into three phases:
- Pre-Assessment: October 2021
- Phase 1: October 2021 – December 2021
- Phase 2: January 2022 – March 2022
- Phase 3: April 2022 – June 2022
- Final Assessment: July 2022
After completion of each phase, the next phase can be started in the above-mentioned period.
Please note that the given time frames indicate the opening time of each phase. Every phase can also be taken at a later point in time as well.
An application has been made to the UEMS EACCME for CME accreditation of this online course.
How to register:
Click here to register for this course through the brand new ESMIT registration tool connecting your eLearning account directly to your myEANM account! Just log into Brightspace and click on ‘Register now!’ Once in the store, click on “Open Educational Resources”, click on “EURO-LEARN Cardiac Amyloidosis Scintigraphy” and proceed to checkout.
You can also access the course store by logging into your myEANM account, clicking on “eLearning platform” in the left sidebar menu and then choosing “Register Now!” in the horizontal navigation.
Course content:
Phase 1:
| Pre-Assessment | Multiple Choice Questions |
| Module 1 (1 CME credit) | Introduction to Cardiac Amyloidosis and New Treatment Options Hans Nienhuis (Groningen, Netherlands) |
| Introduction to Cardiac Amyloidosis and Novel Therapeutic Options Claudio Rapezzi (University of Ferrara – Ferrara, Italy) |
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| Echocardiography and Cardiac MRI in Cardiac Amyloidosis Olivier Lairez (Toulouse, France) |
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| How to use CMR in Cardiac Amyloidosis Marianna Fontana (University College London Hospitals – London, UK) |
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| Self-assessment | |
| Module 2 (1 CME credit) – Nuclear Medicine Imaging in Cardiac Amyloidosis | Imaging Cardiac Amyloidosis Sharmila Dorbala (Brigham and Women’s Hospital – Boston, USA) |
| Nuclear Medicine Application in Amyloidosis: Cardiac MIBG – Protocols, Interpretation, Quantification Eve Piekarski (Paris, France) |
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| Nuclear Medicine Application in Amyloidosis – New PET Radiopharmaceuticals in Cardiac Amyloidosis, Perspectives Jens Sörensen (Uppsala, Sweden) |
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| Cardiac Bone Scans – Protocols, Interpretation, Quantification: an Overview Riemer Slart (Groningen, Netherlands) |
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| Self-assessment |
Phase 2:
| Module 3 (1 CME credit) – Case examples of Modules 1 and 2 | Case 1 (by Riemer Slart) |
| Case 2 (by Riemer Slart) |
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| Case 3 (by Alessia Gimelli) |
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| Case 4 (by Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Case 5 (by Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Case 6 (by Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Case 7 (by Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Self-assessment | |
| Module 4 (1 CME credit) – Radio-pharmaceuticals for Cardiac Amyloidosis |
General overview: what is available? |
| Bone seeking radiopharmaceuticals: secret of localisation and biodistribution and practical aspects of preparation and quality controls | |
| Self-assessment | |
| Module 5 (1 CME credit) – Nuclear Medicine Imaging in Cardiac Amyloidosis |
Case 1 (by Alessia Gimelli) |
| Case 2 (by Riemer Slart) |
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| Case 3 (by Riemer Slart) |
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| Case 4 (by Riemer Slart) |
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| Case 5 (by Alessia Gimelli) |
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| Case 6 (by Alessia Gimelli) |
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| Self-assessment | |
| Module 6 (1 CME credit) – Imaging acquisition and reading | Protocol for bone scintigraphy in cardiac amyloidosis (by Riemer Slart) |
| Planar and SPECT, visual and semiquantitative and quantitative (by Alessia Gimelli) | |
| SPECT Evaluation for ATTR Cardiac Amyloidosis (by Alessia Gimelli) | |
| Results EU questionnaire on cardiac amyloidosis and cardiac sarcoidosis (by Alessia Gimelli) | |
| Self-assessment |
Phase 3:
| Module 7 (1 CME credit) – Clinical cases and Multimodality imaging | Case 1 (by Riemer Slart and Hans Nienhuis) |
| Case 2 (by Riemer Slart and Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Case 3 (by Riemer Slart and Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Case 4 (by Riemer Slart and Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Indication to bone scan in cardiac amyloidosis and patients’ selection (by Riemer Slart) |
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| Self-assessment | |
| Module 8 (1 CME credit) |
How to integrate bone scan in the clinical work out (by Alessia Gimelli) |
| Case 1 (by Riemer Slart and Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Case 2 (by Riemer Slart and Hans Nienhuis) |
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| Self-assessment | |
| Final Assessment | Multiple Choice Questions |
EURO-LEARN website:
For more information on the project, visit the EURO-LEARN website: https://eurolearn.eanm.org/