The Secretary, Dr. C. Baracchini, reported on the First International Neurosonology Training Course of the ESNCH which was held in Bertinoro (Italy) from the 7th to the 11th of September 2008. Although the duration of the course was quite long (5 days) and the organization required a great amount of work to prepare a suitable timetable for speakers and topics, not to mention the costs of such an event (rendered even higher by some last minute defections), the course was very successful because it saw the participation of 48 specialists coming not only from Europe but also from South America and Asia. For this event 28 Italian CME credits and 40 German CME credits were granted, and on the last day of the course all participants were offered the possibility to obtain the International Certification in Neurosonology. The requirements for this Certification have been very high standard, this partly justifies the fact that only 20% passed the exam (passing mark set at 30/40) and obtained the International Certification in Neurosonology. But despite this it is possible to resit this exam as often as nessessary. This event was also an occasion for participants to become members of the ESNCH: 13 applied for membership. With the money coming from registrations and from the sponsors, the expenses were covered, thus obtaining a balance budget.
THE TOPICS OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM HAVE BEEN:
Principles of Ultrasonography
- Physical and Technical Principles
- Artefacts in vascular imaging
Ultrasonography of the cervical vessels
- Extracranial insonation: how to do it?
- Extracranial insonation: tricks and pitfalls
- Arterial wall imaging: IMT and wall motion
- Endothelial function testing
- Cervical vessels: atherosclerotic disease
- Cervical vessels: non atherosclerotic disease
Transcranial Ultrasonography
- Transcranial insonation : how to do it ?
- Intracranial vessels: stenosis, occlusion
- Cerebral Veins : normal and pathological findings
- Vasomotor Reactivity and Functional TCD
- Microemboli detection
- Contrast agents
- PFO detection in young stroke patients
- PFO and migraine
- Acute stroke: diagnosis and monitoring
- Acute stroke: perfusion imaging
- Acute stroke: sonothrombolysis
- US and movements disorders
- Cognitive impairment and US
- TCD in heart surgery and in endovascular procedures
- TCD monitoring in vascular surgery
- TCD monitoring in ICU
- Cerebral circulatory arrest
- Future developments of Neurosonology
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
C. Baracchini, M. Del Sette, P. Limoni, G. Meneghetti