The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) released a new guideline document that outlines uniform training standards for interventional sonographers guiding structural heart procedures.

Brian Lindman, MD, medical director of the Structural Heart and Valve Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explains the new American Heart Association (AHA) Target Aortic Stenosis (AS) program to screen with echo to find more AS patients. 

The group—which includes engineers, cardiologist, radiologists and other specialists—will attempt to perform a robotic-controlled left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) on a patient inside an MRI scanner.

Harold Litt, MD, division chief of cardiothoracic imaging and director of the Center for Advanced CT Imaging Sciences at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, explains the role of cardiac CT in EP procedures.

As the population of patients with adult congenital heart disease grows, they are presenting to adult cardiology clinics and being imaged with CT. Many also do not have access or cannot be imaged by MRI, said Renee Bullock-Palmer, MD.

Joao Cavalcante, MD, director, cardiac MRI and structural CT labs, Minneapolis Heart Institute, discusses the use of cardiac CT imaging to plan and guide structural heart procedures. 

Rebecca T. Hahn, MD, Director of Interventional Echocardiography at the Columbia Structural Heart and Valve Center, discusses some of the trends in the growing use of interventional echocardiographic guidance in transcatheter structural heart procedures.

There is not agreement among the top structural heart experts if CT is required for left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO), but a Henry Ford Hospital study shows it can improve outcomes.