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Dear Colleagues,
On Thursday 20 January and Friday 21 January 2011, the 7th
Leiden Cardiology Course will be organized at the Leiden
University Medical Center (LUMC), The Netherlands. This year the
main focus will be on Cardiomyopathies and Valvular
Diseases.
The spectrum of cardiomyopathies may extend from hypertrophic
to dilated, from ischemic to non-ischemic, and from idiopathic to
infiltrative. The common denominator is any abnormality in cardiac
function according to the 1996 WHO classification. Finally, all
cardiomyopathies will result in heart failure, be it occult of
manifest. For instance, infiltrative cardiomyopathies are
characterized by the deposition of abnormal substances that cause
the ventricular walls to become progressively rigid, thereby
impeding ventricular filling. Some infiltrative cardiac diseases
increase ventricular wall thickness, while others cause chamber
enlargement with secondary wall thinning. Increased wall
thickness, small ventricular volume, and occasional dynamic left
ventricular outflow obstruction such as amyloidosis can outwardly
appear similar to clinical conditions such as hypertrophic.
Likewise, infiltrative disease that presents with a dilated left
ventricle with global or regional wall motion abnormalities and
aneurysm formation may mimic ischemic cardiomyopathy.
The
second part of our symposium will consist of up-to-date diagnosis
and treatment of valvular diseases. Valvular heart diseases
nowadays take a substantial part of our clinical practice due to
-amongst others- increased immigration and improved treatment
modalities in particular for elderly patients. Advanced treatment
have become a prominent issue in recent years such as
sophisticated mitral valve repair and trans-catheter aortic valve
implantation (TAVI) for the treatment of severe symptomatic aortic
stenosis in patients at very high or prohibitive surgical risk.
In our 7th Course, exciting fields will be covered such as
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy,
arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, and tako-tsubo
cardiomyopathy. In addition, the genetic background and incidence
of sudden cardiac death in cardiomyopathies will be highlighted.
There will be expert presentations on aortic stenosis and mitral
valve insufficiency. The key role of cardiovascular imaging in the
domain of cardiomyopathies and valvular heart disease will be
addressed both during the presentations and live demonstrations.
Live/hands on courses will be given in cardiac computed tomography
(CT), echocardiography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)
in the context of our topicst. In addition, there will be live
demonstrations from the catheterization laboratory, focusing on
alcohol septal ablation in patients with serious forms of
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and trans-apical approaches for aortic
valve replacement. Case discussions will be used to illustrate the
2011 state-of-the-art procedures within the context of
cardiomyopathies and valvular diseases.
The organizing committee is honored that Prof. Dr. Robert A.E.
Dion (Genk, Belgium) will present the 31th Einthoven Lecture
entitled: Current status of mitral valve surgery. Prof. Dion is a
world-known expert in the invasive treatment of valvular diseases,
in particular mitral valve disease. He worked for almost seven
years as Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the
LUMC. Currently, professor Dion is Head of the Department of
Cardiac Surgery in The Hospital Oost-Limburg, Genk. Professor Dion
is guest-professor at the University of Leuven and he has close
contacts with university hospitals in Johannesburg, Antwerp and
Brussels.
We are very much looking forward to meeting you in Leiden,
Thursday 20 January and Friday 21 January 2011! |
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