MRI Online is pleased to bring you this important new Mastery Course to help you gain experience and confidence reading Cardiac CT. 

This course can help you achieve your CME requirements for SCCT and NACSI verification programs, and also includes 22 video cases (Category B1) to help fulfill your SCCT Contrast CT case requirement.

Dr. Stefan L. Zimmerman (Johns Hopkins Medicine) is a Level 3 trained practitioner for cardiac CT and cardiac MRI, a Fellow of the North American Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (FNASCI), and Diplomate of the Certification Board of Cardiovascular CT (CBCCT) and Certification Board of Cardiovascular MR (CBCMR), and a Member of the Society of Cardiovascular MRI (SCMR). He has put together this Course to help all cardiac readers learn best practices in interpreting cardiac CT cases. If you have a question for Dr. Zimmerman about the material in this course, please submit your question at the end of the Course evaluation form.

Elevated Role of Cardiac CT in Patient Care

Coronary CT is a highly effective tool for ruling out coronary artery disease (CAD), and has been shown to result in earlier discharge from the ED and fewer patients receiving unnecessary coronary angiography. In support of this data, ACC/AHA Chest Pain Guidelines have recently recommended an elevated role for cardiac CT in the non-invasive assessment of patients with stable or acute chest pain. 

Radiologists and cardiologists play an important role in ensuring the appropriate use of coronary CT in evaluating patients with chest pain. Take this course to gain confidence with Cardiac CT cases and improve outcomes for patients with suspected ischemic heart disease.

Join Dr. Zimmerman as he provides an overview of the indications for coronary CT, including a review of the recently updated AHA/ACC management guidelines (patient pathways, risk categories, and choosing the right diagnostic test). He also breaks down how to grade coronary stenosis, the CAD-RADS scoring system, and the use of fractional flow reserve (FFR) to measure pressure drop across a stenosis.

Dr. Zimmerman will walk you through his search patterns and overall approach to evaluating coronary CT examinations, and will scroll through examples of various pathologies including:

• Right and Left dominant coronary circulation 
• Ramus intermedius
• Total occlusion
• Cocaine related vasospasm
• Myocardial bridging
• Calcified and noncalcified plaques
• Retroaortic Circumflex from the right cusp
• …and more!

Optimize your learning:

• Test Yourself – Before starting the video, launch the DICOM study and complete your independent review of the case in our diagnostic web viewer.
• Review at your own pace – Reminder to utilize the video player features to speed up or slow down the video, pause or rewind to best fit your available time and learning needs.
• Read alongside Dr. Zimmerman – Keep the DICOM study open while you watch Dr. Zimmerman review the cases. We suggest popping the DICOM viewer open in a new window and viewing side by side with the video on your screen. 

After you’re done, check out these additional Cardiac Imaging Mastery Courses for further in-depth case review:

• Fundamentals of Cardiac MRI
• Cardiac MRI of Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy
• Chest Radiograph Approach to Acquired Cardiac Disease