
In line with the other stress imaging modalities, stress echocardiography plays a major role in the accurate analysis of ischemia or viability with the advantage of being a low-cost and radiation-free method benefiting from minimal additional staffing or technical requirements.
The course is designed mainly for cardiologists and echocardiographers who are interested in various stress echocardiography modalities and want to set up or further develop their service. The busy programme delivered by an international panel is aimed to help with practical aspects of running the stress echo lab.
Despite the fact that the evidence on stress echocardiography in valvular and structural heart disease is not as well documented as for ischemia testing, the experience in clinical practice is encouraging and demand for these tests is expanding. Common indications will be documented in clinical scenarios.
The course should allow the participants to get a deeper insight into the complexity of stress echocardiography and familiarise them with its use for ischaemia, valvular and structural heart disease testing. Lectures on principles of stress echocardiography and studies interpretation, use of various stressors, the role of transpulmonary contrast agents or patients' management are accompanied by illustrative case reports.
Dr Borg trained in cardiology in Manchester where he took up his first consultancy. He moved to Mater Dei Hospital in 2014, where he helped to set up a modern cardiac imaging service, including cardiac computed tomography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, stress echocardiography and advanced transoesophageal echocardiography. Dr Borg is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Malta and National training co-ordinator for Cardiology.
Dr Gaibazzi underwent his speciality training in Parma and Brescia, Italy and New Orleans, USA. He has extensive experience in advanced echocardiography and clinical cardiology. He specialises in stress and contrast echocardiography and cardiac CT. Dr Gaibazzi published over 70 articles in the peer reviewed journals and contributed to the textbook of stress echocardiography from Eugenio Picano. He is currently chief of non-invasive cardiology in Parma University Hospital.
Dr Juraj Hrečko graduated from Faculty of Medicine, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik Košice, Slovakia in 2014. He started he career at the General Medicine department of District Hospital Chrudim. In 2016 he joined the Cardiology department of the University Hospital Hradec Králové. He specialised in cardiology in 2021. He is non-invasive cardiologist with special interest in echocardiography, namely stress echocardiography and interventional echocardiography. Thesis of his PhD studies “Decision aid rules in elderly patients with chest pain“.
Dr Khattar underwent his specialist training in London. He has extensive experience in both advanced echocardiography and percutaneous coronary intervention. He specialises in stress and contrast echocardiography, trans-oesophageal echocardiography and 3-D echocardiography. He joined Royal Brompton Hospital from Manchester Heart Centre and is also an honorary clinical senior lecturer at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London.
Dr Mědílek obtained his experience in echocardiography mainly during his attachment to the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department. In years 2007-2012 he worked in Manchester UK where learnt stress echocardiography. After his return to Hradec Králové he set up stress echocardiography service to the cardiology department. He was appointed to the role of Clinical lead in Echocardiography in 2017. He is also involved in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance service.
Prof Picano graduated in 1981 from University of Pisa. He obtained PhD in Cardiovascular Pathophysiology in 1993. He was director of the Echocardiography Laboratory of the Institute of Clinical Physiology in Pisa (1997-2008), Scientific Director of Clinical Cardiology Montevergine (2003-2008) and General Director of the Institute of Clinical Physiology (2008-2014). He was named professor of cardiology (2013) and professor of medicine at University of Astana, Kazakhstan (2015). From 2015 until now he is Research Director of the Biomedicine Department of the Italian National Research Council. He is a clinical cardiologist with a strong background in cardiovascular imaging and multidisciplinary research. He published 525 papers in peer-reviewed journals (H-index=98 by Google Scholar). His book “Stress echocardiography” edited by Springer Nature is in its seventh edition (2023) and was translated into 6 languages.
Professor Senior studied at the University of Calcutta, India, obtaining a masters degree in medicine and cardiology. He joined Northwick Park Hospital, London in 1989. In 1995, he was appointed as a consultant cardiologist, then director of cardiac research in 2003. In September 2010, he was appointed as a consultant cardiologist and director of echocardiography at Royal Brompton. In 2010 he was awarded Professorship of Clinical Cardiology at National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London. He is a clinician with a major interest in echocardiography and stress echocardiography and pioneered the clinical development of yocardial contrast echocardiography. He has published over 450 original papers in the field of cardiology.
Dr Shah graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine in 2002, during which he obtained First Class Honours in an intercalated degree in Cardiovascular Medicine. He is a consultant cardiologist at Southampton General Hospital and past President of the British Heart Valve Society. He sits on the British Society of Echocardiography’s Stress Echocardiography Accreditation Committee and on the EACVI TOE Certification sub-committee.