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

Longstanding NASCI member Elias A, Zerhouni, MD, (Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine & Director of the Department of Radiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine) has been nominated by President Bush to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. The appointment must still be confirmed by the US Senate. Click here for more information:

We now have 360 members! Join the oldest (established 1973) and largest society dedicated to all cardiac imaging. If you're already a member--enlist your colleagues! It now easier than ever to join and increase your knowledge in the state-of-the-art of cardiovascular imaging.

In Chicago in October at the NASCI Annual Meeting, Dr. André Duerinckx passed the gavel to Paul Julsrud, MD. Paul has been a NASCI member since at least 1986 and Board member since 1995. He is a cardiac radiologist and interventionalist in the Department of Radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. His specialty is the diagnosis and transcatheter treatment of congenital heart disease.

I am pleased to inform you that The North American Society for Cardiac Imaging is poised to enter 2002 with a renewed commitment to representing your interests in this exciting field and providing you with the current educational programs required y today’s medical practice. Our immediate Past President, Dr. André Duerinckx, has guided us into this enviable position and we owe him a great debt of gratitude for all his hard work and wise council. We all look forward to his continuing activity on behalf of the Society, especially his ongoing role in organizing the highly successful series of Cardiovascular imaging Courses.

Our annual meeting, held September 29-October 2 in Chicago, was a great success. Our instructional courses and scientific sessions were well received and we had numerous compliments on the general content of the entire meeting. We look forward to seeing you at our 2002 Annual Meeting to be held at the Westin Galleria Dallas on September 21-24. We anticipate offering another practical Cardiovascular Imaging Course as well as a forum for scientific presentations representing the latest work by those active in the field of cardiovascular imaging.

André Duerinckx, MD-PhD, will join the ranks of NASCI past-presidents and will continue to provide his expertise as a member of the NASCI board. He is Chief of Radiology Service at the VA North Texas Healthcare System in Dallas, Texas. During André’s tenure as president, he introduced the International Journal for Cardiovascular Imaging, the literary arm of NASCI. Six issues are published each year and are included in the NASCI membership dues. In addition, he initiated the NASCI Research and Education Fund to support the presentation of cardiac imaging research by young investigators and garnered support for young investigators from the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention (Young Investigators Award) and from Berlex Laboratories, Inc. (Berlex Poster Awards).

André also spear-headed the NASCI educational initiative run co-jointly with the ACR/RSNA/ARRS. These Cardiovascular Imaging courses provide practical information on the performance of cardiac imaging to radiologists in the private practice and academic communities.

The President Elect is E. Kent Yucel, MD. Kent has been a member of NASCI since 1999 and has served on the board since 2000. He is Director of Cardiovascular Imaging, Co-Director of Cardiac MRI and Interim Director of Vascular/Interventional Radiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA.

We welcome to the NASCI Board Paul Finn, MD. Paul is the Director of MRI, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL and the Vice-Chairman for Research, Department of Radiology, Northwestern University Medical School.

Dr. Paul Capp served as NASCI president from 1975-1976. He served on the executive board from 1974-1977. During this period, the society was named NASCAR (North American Society of Cardiac Radiologists). The society was a small, select group of cardiac imagers whose careers focused on cardiac fluoroscopy, plain film imaging, x-ray angiography and interventional radiology. Members at time included Mason Sones, M.D., and the still-active Mel Judkins, M.D., pioneers in interventional cardiology (Sones and Judkins techniques). Besides president of NASCAR/NASCI, Dr. Capp has been president of the American Board of Radiology, The American Roentgen Ray Society and the Society of Chairmen of Academic Departments. Dr. Capp did residencies in pediatrics and radiology at Duke University. In 1970, he became professor and chairman of the Department of Radiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, a position he held until 1993. He is now professor emeritus. Most recently he was named an RSNA 2001 Gold Medalist.

The next NASCI Meeting, Cardiovascular Imaging 2002 is to be held in DALLAS, September 21-24, 2002. The 30th Annual meeting and Scientific Sessions of the North American Society for Cardiac Imaging (NASCI) will be held September 21-22, followed by the 3rd International Scientific Sessions on Coronary MR and CT Angiography, a 2-day symposium (23rd-24th). The venue will be the Westin Galleria, Dallas, TX. You may still submit abstracts for the Scientific Sessions for both oral presentations and for posters . Deadline for oral presentations is May 31. Deadline for posters is August 15. Abstracts may be submitted electronically through the NASCI website.

Limited financial support (up to $1000 per person) is again available to attend the NASCI Scientific Sessions. This funding is provided by the Cardiovascular Imaging Council of the American Heart Association. This funding is provided to encourage participation by YOUNG INVESTIGATORS (students, trainees, fellows, Ph.D-candidates, etc). Abstracts may be submitted via the NASCI web site or may be sent to NASCI via regular mail addressed to the NASCI office address to the attention of Dr. Lawrence Boxt. Please include 5 copies of the abstract with a cover letter from the Chairman or Program Director verifying the applicants status for competitive evaluation by the NASCI selection committee.

There were 103 individuals who attended Cardiovascular Imaging 2001 Course and 118 who attended the 2nd International Workshop on Cardiac MR and CT. Participants at the workshop heard a wide variety of presentations on cardiac MR and CT and discussed the roles of the two modalities in the present and future.

Young Investigators Awards – sponsored by the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention. These investigators each received a $1,000 stipend and travel support (up to $1,000) for travel to and from the NASCI meeting. Winners and their abstracts are as follows:

• Jordin Green, B.S., Northwestern University, USA, “MR coronary angiography with intraarterial gadolinium injection using an inversion recovery-prepared sequence.” ABSTRACT
• Konstantin Nikolaou, M.D., University of Munich, Germany, “High resolution magnetic resonance imaging and multislice CT imaging of coronary artery plaques in human ex-vivo coronary arteries.” ABSTRACT
• Rozemarÿn Vliegenthart, M.Sc., State University, Groningen, The Netherlands, “Coronary Calcification, Detected by Electron-Beam CT, and Extracoronary Measures of Atherosclerosis: The Dutch Coronary Coronary Calcification Study.” ABSTRACT 1  ABSTRACT 2

Berlex Best Presentation Awards were sponsored by Berlex Laboratories, Inc. Winners of the Berlex Best Presentation Awards were:

1. Thomas C. Gerber, MD, Mayo Clinic, USA, “Clinical Determinants of Image Quality in Minimally Invasive Coronary Angiography Using Multislice Spiral Computed Tomography.” ABSTRACT
2. Dieter Ropers, M.D., Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, “Non-invasive investigation of coronary artery bypass grafts using contrast-enhanced retrospectively ECG-gated multi-slice spiral CT .” ABSTRACT
3. Chun Yuan Ph.D., University of Washington, “Correlation of MRI Identified Atherosclerotic Fibrous Cap Status and Clinical Symptoms.” ABSTRACT

Cases are being requested for the American Board of Radiology oral examination, 2003. Hrudaya Nath from Alabama is assisting Dr. Kay Vydareny from Georgia who heads the Cardiopulmonary section of the ABR. Needed are more cardiac CT and MR examples with or without complementary conventional angiograms.

Become a Member of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention. This Council of the AHA gives is the channel for cardiovascular radiology-directed initiatives of the American Heart Association.

Join the ACR (American College of Radiology) - In order to gain representation on the ACR council, sixty percent of a society's membership must also be members of the ACR. If you are a NASCI member help us gain ACR representation by becoming a member of the ACR. If already an ACR member, please maintain your ACR membership. All domestic members who are board certified radiologists should join the ACR if not currently enrolled. Benefits to NASCI include support in advancing cardiac imaging within the radiology. Benefits to ACR members as a whole include reimbursement initiatives, education on CPT coding, and political representation. ACR, in conjunction with the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) and ARRS (American Roentgen Ray Society) has already offered tremendous support in helping NASCI advance educational initiatives in cardiac imaging. The Cardiovascular Imaging 2001 and 2002 Courses are an example of this collaboration.

Philips Medical Systems January 31, 2002: Philips Multi-center Coronary MRA clinical trial shows promise for non-invasive coronary angiography. For more information click here.

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