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 in 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.
Click here to register for this course!
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 |
EURO-LEARN website:
Currently, a dedicated website for the entire project is being developed and will launch soon. Stay tuned for more information!