Confidence with Small Animal Echocardiography

Gain confidence with echo from day 1, supported by lifelong expert mentorship. £2450

This programme is designed to build your confidence in echocardiography so that you can start obtaining diagnostic information immediately, right from your very first view.

Comes with lifelong access to expert mentors; scanning feedback or a second opinion, whenever you need it.

Now with Doppler walkthroughs

Finally understand the ‘why’ behind your Doppler studies, and how to interpret your results to make more confident diagnoses.

Lifelong access, even as we grow

Once you’re in, you’re in!

We are always adding more resources into the training portal, as well as keeping content up-to-date with the latest guidelines, best practice and research findings.

By enrolling into the Confidence in Echocardiography programme, you will have access to all new modules that we add, supported with lifelong expert mentorship via email or Zoom, as well as membership of the Veterinary Echocardiography community (currently hosted on Facebook).

Introduction

Module 1

Supplementary Information - Module 1

If your machine has colour Doppler and you would like to use it on this course, here is some further information about its use.

Module 2

Visual assessment of chamber sizes, wall thickness and left ventricular systolic function.

Module 3

This module focuses on three of the short axis views, used primarily to examine the left ventricle and wall thickness:

The papillary muscle level or “mushroom view”
The mitral valve level or “fish mouth view”
The apical short axis view

Supplementary Information - Module 3

For those who want more detail, a closer look at how we quantify left ventricular systolic function in echocardiography.

Module 4

In this module, we will look at the semilunar valves: aortic and pulmonary.

Supplementary Information - Module 4

An in-depth look at the history and evolution of the LA:Ao ratio measurement, and how to perform it.
Familiarisation with pulmonary regurgitation.

Module 5

In this module, we look at the atrioventricular valves. As the name suggests, the atrioventricular valves are situated between the atria and the ventricles. This is where echocardiography begins to get even more exciting!

The Tricuspid Valve
The Mitral Valve
Mitral Stenosis
Mitral Regurgitation
Primary mitral regurgitation: myxomatous mitral valve disease
Secondary mitral regurgitation: Functional mitral valve disease
Colour Doppler in patients with mitral regurgitation
Case walkthrough
Inspirion exercise: mitral regurgitation

Module 6

Looking more closely at the right heart, and pulmonary hypertension.

What is pulmonary hypertension?
Assessing the right heart
Pressure overload
Volume overload
Septal flattening
Feline patients
Summary

Supplementary Information - Module 6

For those who are ready to incorporate the first left-sided views into their examination.

Module 7

A detailed examination of the two most common cardiomyopathies in small animals: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). We will look at:

Primary and secondary signs of cardiomyopathy on echocardiography
How to screen for cardiomyopathy with cardiac ultrasound

Introduction to cardiomyopathies
Hypertropic Cardiomyopathy
Papillary Muscles
Measuring wall thickness
Obstructive HCM
Diastolic Function & HCM
Dilated Cardiomyopathy
EPSS

Supplementary Information - Module 7

Extra cardiomyopathies for reference.

Module 8

In this module, we will examine:

Pericardial effusions – what are they, and how can we identify them on echo?
Emergency echo and tamponade
Pleural effusions – differentiating pleural and pericardial effusions

Getting started with spectral Doppler

In this section, you will be introduced to pulsed wave and continuous wave Doppler; what they are, what they do, and how to use them most effectively.

Doppler Module 1

How can spectral Doppler help in one of our most common findings in veterinary echocardiography: patients with suspected dynamic outflow tract obstruction?

Doppler Module 2

Pulsed wave Doppler can be used to look at mitral inflow patterns. In this module, we learn about what this can tell you about your patient’s filling pressures. We also take our first look at Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) and how this can be combined with mitral inflow for a more complete understanding of diastolic function.

Doppler Module 3

Doppler techniques for right heart assessment, and estimating the probability of pulmonary hypertension

Understanding right ventricular systolic pressure and pulmonary artery systolic pressure
Estimating pulmonary pressures
TAPSE
Obtaining S'
Examining the right heart in a patient with mitral valve disease