In patients with known or suspected coronary heart disease (CHD) cardiac imaging is principally used to diagnose the disease, assess its physiological extent and/or severity, stratify the risks, and assess viability of the heart muscle. Several imaging techniques are used to reach these goals, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Right now, says Dr Badano, chairman of the Congress Programme Committee, we do not yet know the added value of the new techniques (such as magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, and cardiac computed tomography, CCT) over the established technology used for improving the prognosis of CHD patients. Reports presented at this congress will help clarify the expanding diagnostic role of cardiac imaging.

The introduction and wider use of these techniques in the last 20 years - in echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, cardiac computed tomography - have been accompanied by a decline in mortality related to coronary artery disease, which, says Dr Badano, must in some part be explained by new technology. It is likely that non-invasive imaging will gain more importance in clinical cardiology - and probable also that these more accurate tests will revolutionise the diagnostics of cardiac diseases in the near future.

More than 3,000 participants are expected to attend this year?s congress, whose two main themes are cardiomyopathies (deterioration in the function of the heart muscle as a result of disease) and three-dimensional echocardiography.

EUROECHO 2009 will take place at IFEMA ? Feria de Madrid. It is the 13th annual meeting of the European Association of Echocardiography (EAE) - the oldest association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Online registration is now closed. However on-site registration is still possible at the congress. If already registered online for EuroEcho, it is possible to register online before 30 November 2009 for the Imaging Campus (1) which is a feature of the congress. Registration for the Imaging Campus sessions is mandatory as the number of participants at each session is restricted to 25/30.

Find more information on EUROECHO here (1) and plan your congress attendance on a day-by-day basis with the scientific programme online.

References:

1) For more information on how to register, visit: http://www.escardio.org/CONGRESSES/EUROECHO2009/Pages/welcome.aspx

Notes to editor:

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) represents more than 62,000 cardiology professionals across Europe and the Mediterranean. Its mission is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe.