September 8-11th 2010, Dubrovnik, Croatia
This year, our beautiful City Dubrovnik was the host of 2nd International Training Course of the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (ESNCH). Over fifty attendees from all around the world, from Europe and Asia to South America, had the privilege to participate in lectures and discussions held by world’s leaders in the field of neurosonology.
The Course was held over three full days, with lectures and hands-on sessions. The lectures were held by world’s distinguished experts in the field. Diverse topics were discussed, starting from basic neurosonology to diagnosing complex neurological pathology by means of neurosonology.
The Course was opened by professor Kurt Niederkorn with a lecture on basic scanning and artifacts, followed by professor Vida Demarin with an overview on carotid pathology. Vertebral pathology was presented by Professor Claudio Baracchini. Vascular risk prediction and imaging markers of subclinical atherosclerosis was a valuable lecture by assistant professor Tanja Rundek. The irreplaceable use of transcranial Doppler (TCD) and transcranial color coded Doppler (TCCD) was demonstrated by professor Susanna Horner in a lecture on anatomy and arterial TCD and TCCD, professor Eva Bartels who spoke about arteriovenous malformations and venous TCD and TCCD, and the use of contrast agents in extra and transcranial duplex ultrasonography and perfusion imaging, followed by professor Bojana Žvan with TCD in evaluation of brain death. professor Andrei Alexandrov had an interesting lecture on sonothrombolysis, and assistant professor Milija Mijajlović spoke about TCCS in neurodegenerative disorders.
Two workshops were also held; one on detection of patent foramen ovale by Susanna Horner, and one by Dražen Ažman on nerve and muscle detection.
During hands-on sessions all participants had a unique opportunity to try out all applicable neurosonographic methods demonstrated by the experts. With their help, we were able to ameliorate our own performance of Doppler sonography and our understanding of all available methods. All lecturers participated in hands-on sessions with their assistants Iris Zavoreo and Sandra Morović.
More enthusiastic participants were able to test their knowledge by taking the ESNCH/NSRG certification exam, and become certified teachers.
Altogether, we had a rarely valuable and helpful course in a rarely beautiful city!