Browsing by Author "Popescu, Bogdan A. (37005664700)"

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The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) is committed to maintaining the highest standards of professional excellence in all aspects of cardiovascular imaging. The mission of the EACVI is to promote excellence in clinical diagnosis, research, technical development, and education in cardiovascular imaging with a particular focus on education, training, scientific initiatives, and research. The EACVI established the Scientific Initiatives Committee (SIC) in December 2018. This committee has responsibility for surveys among imagers, patients' surveys and surveys including data from clinical practice. The current document describes the aims of the EACVI SIC and the creation of the international EACVI survey network. This document summarizes the EACVI's standards for the survey questions and standards for writing the papers with the results of the surveys. These are in accordance with previous recommendations and were approved by the EACVI SIC and the EACVI Board in 2019. © 2019 Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.

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There is a growing trend of using ultrasound examination of the heart as a first-line diagnostic tool for initial patient evaluation in acute settings. Focus cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) is a standardized but restricted cardiac ultrasound examination that may be undertaken by a range of medical professionals with diverse backgrounds. The intention of this core curriculum and syllabus is to define a unifying framework for educational and training processes/programmes that should result in competence in FoCUS for various medical professionals dealing with diagnostics and treatment of cardiovascular emergencies. The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging prepared this document in close cooperation with representatives of the European Society of Anaesthesiology, the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiology, the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association of the European Society of Cardiology and the World Interactive Network Focused On Critical Ultrasound. It aims to provide the key principles and represents a guide for teaching and training of FoCUS. We offer this document to the emergency and critical care community as a reference outline for teaching materials and courses related to FoCUS, for promoting teamwork and encouraging the development of the field. © 2017 The Author.

Nearly half of all patients with heart failure (HF) have a normal left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) and the condition is termed heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). It is assumed that in these patients HF is due primarily to LV diastolic dysfunction. The prognosis in HFpEF is almost as severe as in HF with reduced EF (HFrEF). In contrast to HFrEF where drugs and devices are proven to reduce mortality, in HFpEF there has been limited therapy available with documented effects on prognosis. This may reflect that HFpEF encompasses a wide range of different pathological processes, which multimodality imaging is well placed to differentiate. Progress in developing therapies for HFpEF has been hampered by a lack of uniform diagnostic criteria. The present expert consensus document from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) provides recommendations regarding how to determine elevated LV filling pressure in the setting of suspected HFpEF and how to use multimodality imaging to determine specific aetiologies in patients with HFpEF. © 2021 Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.

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Aims: Assessment of left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (LVEF) with cardiac imaging is important in the selection of patients for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Several observational studies have explored the role of imaging-derived LV dyssynchrony parameters to predict the response to CRT, but have yielded inconsistent results, precluding the inclusion of imaging-derived LV dyssynchrony parameters in current guidelines for selection of patients for CRT. Methods: The EuroCRT is a large European multicentre prospective observational study led by the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging. We aim to explore if combing the value of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and echocardiography could be beneficial for selecting heart failure patients for CRT in terms of improvement in long-term survival, clinical symptoms, LV function, and volumes. Speckle tracking echocardiography will be used to assess LV dyssynchrony and wasted cardiac work whereas myocardial scar will be assessed with late gadolinium contrast enhanced CMR. All data will be measured in core laboratories. The study will be conducted in European centres with known expertise in both CRT and multimodality cardiac imaging. © The Author 2017.

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for management of atrial fibrillation (AF) recommend the use of CHA 2 DS 2 VASc risk score for assessment of thromboembolic (TE) risk, whereas the stratification of bleeding risk should be obtained by HAS-Bleed to balance the most appropriate anticoagulation (OAC) therapy. However, men with CHA 2 DS 2 VASc score = 1 and women with CHA 2 DS 2 VASc = 2, who are at intermediate TE risk, represent a grey zone where guidelines do not provide a definite OAC indication. Accordingly, implementation of risk stratification with echocardiography could be extremely useful. Both prospective and cross-sectional studies on transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) prediction of TE events and studies utilizing transoesophageal echocardiographic parameters as surrogate markers of TE events makes sustainable the hypothesis that echocardiography could improve TE prediction in non-valvular AF. Moreover, considering the close association of AF and stroke, all echo-Doppler parameters that have shown to predict AF onset and recurrence could be useful also to predict TE events in this clinical setting. Accordingly, EACVI AFib Echo Europe Registry has been designed as an observational, cross-sectional study, with the aim of evaluating: (i) left atrial (LA) size and function together with left ventricular geometry, systolic and diastolic functions in paroxysmal, persistent, and permanent AF; (ii) relationships of structural/functional parameters with clinical TE and bleeding risk profile. By the AFib Echo Europe Registry, we expect to collect data on echocardiographic phenotype of patients with AF. The large data set accumulated will be useful to test the level of agreement of different echocardiographic measurements with the available risk scores. © 2017 The Author.

Aims: Heart failure outcomes remain poor despite advances in therapy. The European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure III Registry (ESC HF III Registry) aims to characterize HF clinical features and outcomes and to assess implementation of guideline-recommended therapy in Europe and other ESC affiliated countries. Methods: Between 1 November 2018 and 31 December 2020, 10 162 patients with chronic or acute/worsening HF with reduced, mildly reduced, or preserved ejection fraction were enrolled from 220 centres in 41 European or ESC affiliated countries. The ESC HF III Registry collected data on baseline characteristics (hospital or clinic presentation), hospital course, diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in hospital and at the clinic visit; and on outcomes at 12-month follow-up. These data include demographics, medical history, physical examination, biomarkers and imaging, quality of life, treatments, and interventions – including drug doses and reasons for non-use, and cause-specific outcomes. Conclusion: The ESC HF III Registry will provide comprehensive and unique insight into contemporary HF characteristics, treatment implementation, and outcomes, and may impact implementation strategies, clinical discovery, trial design, and public policy. © 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society of Cardiology.

Recent technological advances in echocardiography, with progressive miniaturization of ultrasound machines, have led to the development of handheld ultrasound devices (HUD). These devices, no larger than some mobile phones, can be used to perform partial, focused exams as an extension to the physical examination. The European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) acknowledges that the dissemination of appropriate HUD use is inevitable and desirable, because of its potential impact on patient management. However, as a scientific society of cardiac imaging, our role is to provide guidance in order to optimize patient benefit and minimize drawbacks from inappropriate use of this technology. This document provides updated recommendations for the use of HUD, including nomenclature, appropriateness, indications, operators, clinical environments, data management and storage, educational needs, and training of potential users. It also addresses gaps in evidence, controversial issues, and future technological developments. © The Author(s) 2019.