A Busy 1st Day at the 2011 SVU Annual Conference

Hello vascular world, Manny here...exhausted, but still alive.

Today was the 1st day of the 2011 SVU Annual Conference. And...it was awesome. Lots of information. Lots of new people to meet. It seems like people are really getting a lot of enjoyment and education out of the sessions.



The day started out at 7:00am with the concurrent tutorials. There were 4 great tutorials going on at the same time, so I chose the Data Management session since it was interesting and I wanted to show some love to Laurie Lozanski (one of my teachers at Rush University!).



Great turnout for the tutorials.



At 8:30am the SVU General Opening Session began in an extremely large ballroom. The first business of the day was a warm welcome and opening announcements by Paula Walsh. The candidates for the 2012-2013 SVU Board Officers were introduced and included Tish Poe, David Parlato, LeAnn Maupin, Joseph Hughes, and Patricia Marques. Candidates for 2012-2014 SVU Board Technologist Directors were introduced as well and included Kelly Byrnes, Nathalie Garbani, Megan Hodge, and Patrick Washko. I think they were all there, but I'm honestly not sure.



After that we had an awesome presentation about plaque characterization and IMT studies by Dr. George Meier, Jean Alessi-Chinetti, Dr. Joseph Polak, Dr. Steven Feinstein, and Dr. Alan Lumsden. They are all really on the cutting edge of this technique (and they've been doing it for a LONG time too). The technique itself was a lot more involved than I thought. Dr. Feinstein's presentation on using contrast with duplex imaging was extremely exciting. Dr. Feinstein perhaps uses contrast in ultrasound studies more so than anybody else in the world. With contrast we are able to see micro neovascularization of plaque. It is the goal that these studies can someday help us to use intimal media thickening to predict atherosclerosis severity.



After a quick break, the D.E. Strandness, MD, Scientific Session began at 10:45am. Dr. Elisa Greco, Karen Marr, Dr. Fabio H Menezes, Frank Miele, Dr. Francis J. Porreca, Robert Scissons, and Elizabeth Wooster all had great presentations. Dr. Porreca's presentation of 3D reconstruction of cerebrovascular vessels was really cool. Robert Scissons made a great point about whether velocity criteria should be updated now that our gold standard, angiography, was being used less and less in favor of CTA. And according to Frank Miele, the next time you interview an applicant to your ultrasound school, you should ask them if they can play an instrument.



The day started out wet and rainy, but later it got pretty nice.



Today one of my teachers at Rush University (Donna Blackburn) graciously introduced me to Anne Jones from North Carolina. Last year I was very fortunate to receive the 2010 Anne Jones Scholarship which helped a lot with tuition. To finally get to meet her in person was really amazing and I have nothing but deep appreciation for her. If it wasn't for Anne Jones, I'd still be eating cup of noodles everyday (actually I still do that). :)



The Lunch with the Experts session was really great as well.



The presentation, Strategic Approach to the Abnormal Vascular Examination, was given by Dr. Wayne Smith. He had some really unique cases.



The food wasn't bad either! There were sandwiches, roasted sirloin, shrimp with orzo pasta, fresh rolls, roasted vegetables, brownies, and even a tomatoes with mozzarella balls salad.



After lunch the presentations started up again at 2:00pm. The presentation was focused only on venous studies and presenters included Dr. John Mauriello, Joe Zygmunt, Barbara Poule Shulze, Dr. Mark Meissner, Jeannie White, and Diana Neuhardt.

The final session of the day was with Dr. Bart Muhs, Marsha Neumyer, and Dr. Alan Hirsch who talked about arterial peripheral vascular disease.

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At 5:30pm the Vascular Annual Meeting Opening Night Reception began in the Exhibit Hall and it was a blast. It was a really a great way to check out some awesome vendors, meet new people, and just hang out.



There was an acappella group (with a slight resemblance to 90's band Color Me Badd) providing entertainment at the Exhibit Hall.



Lots of great product information.



Compression stockings...you too can be vain while taking care of your...veins.



Here is my schmoozing buddy Alicia Formato along with Dr. Gupta of North Shore Hospital and Eileen French-Sherry of Rush University.



There is a 2-drink minimum when hanging out with Ann Marie Kupinski. :)



Lots of great hors d'oeuvres.



We got to meet Dr. Flora Katznelson who was checking out the reception as well. We also got to meet other doctors including Dr. George Hamilton of the Royal Free Hospital in England.

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All in all...not a bad 1st day. What's really crazy is that I have to be up at 6:00am to do it all over again. Hope everyone is doing well and having a great time.

Cheers,
Manny :)

Interesting Tidbits During Today's Opening General Session

Did everyone get a chance to see the view from the east side of McCormick Place? The lakeview looked amazing, even for me and I'm from Chicago!!! If you missed it take a look tomorrow (sorry forgot my camera).

Well Day 1 of the 2011 SVU Annual Conference is over and I would like to share some interesting information that was given during today's lectures. All of today's speakers did a fantastic job of presenting information and answering questions.

The following are what I believe to be interesting bits of information.

"Carotid Plaque Characterization"

-Take your IMT measurements during end-diastole.

-Remember to stay perpendicular to the vessel to obtain the best B-Mode image. If need be, you can always use the heel/toe manuever to obtain a better image.

-In addition, you can use compound imaging, harmonics, and cross-beam features on you US system to obtain a better B-Mode image.

-Only monkeys and humans have Carotid Bulbs!!!

-Key emphasis was made on the term "vulnerable plaque" not neccessarily hemodynamically insignificant/significant plaque.

-Look for pathological IMT. This is the plaque we see!!!

-IMT can differ side to side.

-Today we were shown how vaso-vasorum can fills plaque by use of a contrast agent. In turn, it was bought to my attention that if contrast can visualize this, then is it possible to visualize it using color doppler/power(color)doppler? Maybe we just need to lower our color PRF.

Again, See you guys tomorrow.

Mannan

Former NFL Star Joe Theismann and the Find the AAAnswers Coalition’s AAA Public Awareness Campaign

We've all heard the facts!!! Most patients with a ruptured aneurysm do not survive emergency treatment, making AAA the 3rd leading cause of sudden death in men over 60. 50% of patients don't even make it to the emergency room in time for treatment. Only 10-25% of patients with an undiagnosed ruptured AAA survive to be discharged from the hospital. The scariest thing is that; AAA is known as a silent killer because many people do not experience any symptoms. Aneurismal growth rates differ dramatically between patients.

Join former NFL quarterback and College Football Hall of Fame member Joe Theismann as he talks about the importance of AAA screenings and how we can help reduce victims of this "silent killer".

Saturday, June 18th from 3:15pm-3:30pm



To hear Joe's story, watch the video below.



Also, check out these cool pins that are available outside room 451!!!



See you tomorrow,

Mannan

Pre-Conference Session on Wednesday 6/15/11

So yesterday was the pre-conference day for the 2011 SVU Annual Conference.

I have to say I was a little late to the hemodialysis session because I got lost going through McCormick Place. The place was huge. Here was a quick rundown of what I went through.

I walked from my apartment to McCormick Place, so I ended up entering near where the Hyatt Regency Hotel was (so I was west of the Lakeside Center). If you're heading to the conference from the Hyatt Regency Hotel, these pictures would make more sense.



Here's the "Grand Concourse". A huge "hallway" that connects all the buildings of McCormick Place together. Along the concourse I saw several other conferences going on, a Fedex Kinko's area, access to the food court, a Metra train station stop, and more. This area was huge and I couldn't believe all the services and little businesses found along it.



After walking for awhile I finally got to the bridge that connected the North Building to the Lakeside Center where the conference was.



After crossing the bridge you'll see this little area. I got lost because I didn't realize that registration was DOWNSTAIRS. So once you get to this area go one level down.



Ahhh yes. Here was the registration desk. This is where the lovely Frankie Hamme and Missi Mclean helped me out and got me checked in.



I got to the hemodialysis access session where Kelly Byrnes was in the middle of doing I believe a palmar arch test. She was doing the palmar arch test using duplex imaging as opposed to the CW Doppler or PPG version. One sonographer in the crowd also suggested trying to find the radial artery with the palm facing down (so the transducer was on top of the hand) and it worked as well!



After that Steve Talbot did a presentation on Flow Volume Measurements. It was a fascinating and funny presentation. He made a lot of jokes. If you see him ask him where the "Vascular Center" of the brain is. You would never guess where it's located anatomically.

After Steve's presentation, Dr. Dennis Bandyk from the University of South Florida gave a really great lecture on physiologic changes that occur after a fistula is created. Lots of really amazing information.



After Dr. Bandyk's lecture, Kelly continued the session by having actual models come to the front to get hands-on scanning demonstrations.

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Overall not bad for a first day. It was a lot of information just in a few hours and it wasn't even officially the first day of the conference.

Cheers,
Manny :)