EURO-LEARN is project aimed at increasing the awareness of Cardiac Amyloidosis for professionals and patients.
Amyloidosis is the term for a group of rare diseases in which abnormal proteins deposit as amyloid in tissues and organs. Amyloid is produced when abnormal proteins in the body „misfold“ and collect together in various tissues and organs, including the heart. As the amyloid builds up, it starts to cause organ damage, impair quality of life, and this may result in heart failure and arrhythmias.
EURO-LEARN is created to help both professionals and patients to gain more knowledge and awareness of clinical imaging in this field. Most important is to improve the indications and skills of the professional around the bone scanning procedurals for cardiac amyloidosis.
Cardiac amyloidosis is a disorder caused by deposits of an abnormal protein (amyloid) in the heart tissue which make it hard for the heart to work properly.
Transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is a gradually progressive and ultimately fatal condition characterised by the deposition of amyloid fibrils from liver-derived transthyretin (TTR) in the myocardial extracellular space. ATTR-CM can be classified as sporadic, associated with the deposition of wild-type transthyretin (ATTRwt), or hereditary, associated with genetic variants of TTR (ATTRv).
Historically there has been a mismatch between the number of clinical diagnoses of ATTR-CM and autopsy findings where cardiac ATTR amyloid deposits have been observed in up to a quarter of elderly individuals. In recent years, greater awareness of ATTR-CM as an under-recognised cause of heart failure, coupled with an ageing population and advances in diagnostic techniques, have resulted in a dramatic increase in new clinical diagnoses of ATTR-CM.
For example, the prevalence of ATTR-CM is currently estimated at ~1 in 7 patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and 1 in 6 with severe aortic stenosis (AS) requiring transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Based upon these statistics and the growing population of elderly people in Europe (100 million), the prevalence of (unrecognised) ATTR-CM in Europe in this group will increase.
For more information on the disease, please have a look at the following websites:
Find publications on important guidelines on this topic.
With this project we 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 will lie on transthyretin amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). The main focus in this project is Europe as a whole where 99mTc-DPD and 99mTc-HMDP as these are the most widely use radiopharmaceuticals in Europe.
Objectives of the course:
To provide practical instructions for referring physicians and patients
Target Audience:
Module 1
Module 2 – Nuclear Medicine Imaging in Cardiac Amyloidosis
Module 3 – Case examples of Modules 1 and 2
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 3
Module 4 – Radiopharmaceuticals for Clinical Amyloidosis
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 4
Module 5 – Nuclear Medicine Imaging in Cardiac Amyloidosis
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 5
Module 6 – Imaging acquisition and reading
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 6
Module 7 – Clinical Cases and Multimodality Imaging
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 7
Module 8
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 8
Module 9
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 9
Module 10
Self-Assessment and Certificate for Module 10
Final Assessment
This freely accessible course is available online on the ESMIT eLearning platform.
It is self-paced and can be taken at any time. After successful completion of modules, an ESMIT certificate is granted.
To sign up for the course, please follow these steps:
European School of Multimodality Imaging & Therapy (ESMIT)
Schmalzhofgasse 26
1060 Vienna
Austria
phone +43 1 890 44 27
e-mail esmit@eanm.org