The North American Society for Cardiac Imaging (NASCI) is an
international organization dedicated to the advancement of cardiovascular imaging.

Saturday Daily Update
Day 1 of NASCI 2005 began with the SCCT symposium and a lecture on the "State of the Art of Coronary CT Imaging." Joseph Schoepf, M.D. (Medical University of South Carolina) went over the methodology of how to perform coronary CT angiography on multidetector CT (MDCT) systems, and how to interpret the images. He showed left ventricular functional data obtained from cine short and long axis images created from coronary CT angiography data sets, describing them as one advantage of the higher temporal resolution 64-detector systems. Finally, he emphasized the global utility of MDCT, providing information on the presence coronary artery disease, aortic dissection, pulmonary embolism, and even lung carcinoma as potential sources of chest pain in a single examination.

Arthur Agatston, M.D., (Miami Beach, FL) talked about coronary artery disease prevention in a talk entitled, "Preventive Care and Lifestyle Modification." Americans and Western Europeans are eating incorrectly. The key is not the elimination of fats and carbohydrates, but rather eating foods with the right fats (more omega-3) and right carbohydrates (complex carbohydrates and fiber). The shift in eating habits over time has led to an increase in cardiovascular risk factors. . . in turn has created the need for noninvasive methods of coronary disease assessment and monitoring.

Jack Ziffer, M.D. (Miami, FL) asked the question, "Will Cardiac CT Nuclear Testing to Evaluate Chest Pain in the ER" His answer is "yes" coronary CT angiography will soon be the way to go, however rest/stress SPECT imaging still plays a role. The main question to be answered in the emergency department, "Is the chest pain acute coronary syndrome. . . or something else?"

Sunday Daily Update
Larry Boxt (Manhassett, NY) kicked off the morning with "The Requisites for Cardiac CT/MR Anatomy," providing attendees with a "roadmap" through the heart. This was followed by Bob Edelman (Evanston, IL) who gave an overview of "Cardiac MR Protocols and Instrumentation."

Next Frank Shellock's (South Carolina) discussion reviewed multiple aspects of "MR Safety," highlighting 3T considerations and the new packaging information for drug eluting coronary artery stents: MR imaging is considered safe immediately following coronary artery stent placement.

Scott Flamm, M.D. (Texas Heart Institute) and Vince Ho, M.D. (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences) concluded the first sessions with talks on "Cardiac MR" and "Vascular MR Applications."

Monday Daily Update
Today at the NASCI Annual Meeting, the following special announcements were made:

Berlex Poster Awards:

1st Place - $750.00
Poster #54: Atypical Chest pain: Uniform Enhancement of Coronary, Aortic and Pulmonary Vasculature Using a Biphasic Single Injection 64-slice CT-Angiography Protocol
Kostaki Bis, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI

2nd Place - $500.00
Poster #39: Design Considerations for an Optimized Cardiac CT Scanner
Herbert Bruder, Siemens Medical Solutions, Forchheim, Germany

3rd Place -$300.00
Poster #34: Effect Of Varying Tube-Potential On Assessment Of Coronary Stents Using 64-Slice MDCT: An In Vitro Study
Gopi Kiran Reddy Sirineni, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

Thank you to BERLEX for their continued support.

Tuesday Daily Update
Yesterday, the nominating committee selected Arthur Stillman, MD, PhD, Professor of Radiology of the Cleveland Clinic to succeed Dr. Kent Yucel as President of our Society. Dr. Pam Woodard of Washington University in St. Louis, currently Secretary-Treasurer of NASCI will succeed Arthur Stillman as President-Elect. Dr. Vincent Ho, Professor of Radiology of the Uniformed Services Medical School in Washington DC will be the new Secretary-Treasurer. He is currently co-chair of the Program Committee and together with Professor Norbert Wilke of the University of Florida, orchestrated this years highly successful Annual Meeting. Dr. Wilke was elected to the Board of Directors and Geoff Rubin of Stanford University, an authority on Vascular CT will co-chair next years program.

Recap of yesterday's Read with the Experts Session?
The panel included: Laureen Sena from Boston Children's Hospital, Frandics Chan of Stanford University and Packard Children's Hospital; Bruce Greenberg of Arkansas Children's Hospital and Mark Fogel from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Bob Steiner, Temple University was the moderator.

All of the cases shown by the panelists will be solicited for inclusion in the NASCI Web Case Library.

Professor Sven Paulin from Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Medical Center of Boston, a pioneer in the development of coronary arteriography and a past president of NASCI presented the Tuesday morning Keynote Lecture. He vividly traced the evolution of coronary artery imaging from the primitive beginnings in the 1940's to the exciting advancements of non-invasive coronary artery and coronary venous imaging of today.

Next Year's Meeting, October 6-10, 2006

NASCI's Annual Meeting will move west to Las Vegas. The meeting will be held at the J. W. Marriott Resort at Summerlin, a 5-Star destination within a short shuttle ride to 'The Strip'. Look to the website in the near future for details. Hope to see you there!

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