From Echo Lab to Operating Room and Beyond: Navigating the Journey of Structural Heart Patients

This course will delve into the responsibilities of the echocardiographer, the sonographer and the cardiologist in assessing patients pre and post structural heart interventions.  Participants will gain insight into crucial echocardiographic techniques necessary for identifying suitable candidates for structural interventional procedures and conducting follow-up assessments to ascertain procedural success and detect any early or late complications.

Moreover, the course will offer extensive training in performing both comprehensive and targeted imaging procedures to obtain 3D datasets essential for planning structural heart interventional cases. Participants will also learn post-processing techniques for analyzing these datasets to assess anatomy, identify underlying mechanisms, and quantify the severity of various disease states amenable to structural heart interventions. Such conditions include mitral regurgitation for Mitraclip procedures, tricuspid regurgitation for Triclip procedures, mitral stenosis for balloon valvuloplasty, aortic stenosis for TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement), aortic insufficiency for TAVR, prosthetic mitral and aortic valve paravalvular leaks for PVL (Paravalvular Leak) closure, left atrial appendage for WATCHMAN procedures, and interatrial septal defects for PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) / ASD (Atrial Septal Defect) closures. Additionally, participants will learn to plan transseptal procedures for all left heart structural interventional procedures and manipulate the dataset to optimize the visualization of anatomy.