07 Sep 20. ESC Congress 2020

Professor Marc Dweck & Dr Michelle Williams recently presented at the ESC Congress 2020.

From the 29^th August – 1^st September 2020, the ESC Congress 2020 went virtual, marking a record breaking event hosting 125,000 healthcare professionals from 211 countries.

The ESC Congress is an event for academics to present on all things cardiovascular medicine.

At this year’s congress, Professor Marc Dweck, Personal Chair of Cardiology & Dr Michelle Williams, Senior Clinical Research Fellow presented at the congress.

Professor Mark Dweck was also on the Congress Program Committe & so involved with the design of the original program as well as the redesign of the virtual program.

Professor Marc Dweck, Myocardial fibrosis in aortic stenosis

Professor Dweck gave a lecture on the importance of imaging how the heart muscle responds to aortic valve narrowing (aortic stenosis).

In particular, the lecture focused on how CMR scanning can detect scarring in the heart muscle as a sign that the heart is starting to fail in the face of the valve disease & that aortic valve replacement should be considered.

This hypothesis is currently being tested in the EVOLVED randomised controlled trial.

Dr Michelle Williams, Computed tomography scan for critically ill patients.

This talk was part of a session on advanced imaging for critical care patients which included talks on echocardiography, lung ultrasound, ECMO & LVADS.

Computed tomography can be safely performed in unwell patients if done as part of a multidisciplinary team, which often includes anaesthetic support.

It can provide invaluable information on the wide variety of pathologies which can be present in critically ill patients such as the presence of coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, pulmonary oedema, aortic disease & post surgical complications.

In the era of COVID computed tomography coronary angiography can be particularly useful in ruling out coronary artery disease in patients with chest pain, reducing the need for invasive or other forms of imaging which may increase staff or patient exposures.

Similarly computed tomography can be used to reduced the need for trans-oesophageal echocardiography in patients with suspected endocarditis.

This talk highlighted the recent SCCT guidelines for the use of cardiac CT during the COVID19 pandemic & the ESC Guidance for Diagnosis & Management of CVD during the COVID-19 Pandemic.