The health and safety of our members, speakers, industry partners and Annual Scientific Sessions attendees is our top priority. SCMR leadership and staff have been monitoring the conditions and evaluating several possible scenarios for the SCMR 24^th Annual Scientific Sessions in San Diego, California, USA. 

The theme of the meeting is Precision. Predictive. Personal. This theme has taken on a new and unexpected meaning as we examined how to maintain and enhance the many unique features of our Scientific Session into our #SCMR2021.

Continuing our path of expanding our international reach through educational opportunities and with our new membership scheme, we are excited to bring our #SCMR2021 global with regionally timed events throughout 2021. 

Parallel to this decision, we are going to keep the Abstract Submission date open until October 29, providing you extended time to be a part of this global experience. Take advantage and Submit Now.

SCMR Virtual Scientific Sessions 2021 will kick off our educational year from February 18-20 with Live and Pre-Recorded educational offerings, including lecture sessions by world leaders in the field of CMR, oral abstract and poster presentations of the latest science, as well as state-of-the art reviews of best practices in cardiac imaging.

The #SCMR2021 will offer diverse and interactive session formats including didactic, debates, rapid fire cases, how-to, and poster presentations. Intertwined will be networking and product/educational showcases from our industry partners. 

Registration will open in October 2020. 2021 SCMR Membership is required to qualify for the discounted SCMR member rate for the SCMR Virtual Scientific Sessions 2021. If you do not renew your membership or join the SCMR for 2021, you will be charged the non-member rate. For membership questions, please contact hq@scmr.org. 

The current clinical indications for cardiovascular imaging in the evaluation of COVID-19 complications have been summarized in a recent American College of Cardiology guidance document, to which SCMR contributed. The indications for CMR in this context include accurate assessment of chamber size and function, detection of ischemia, myocardial infarction, myocarditis and stress cardiomyopathy. Referrals for imaging tests in the setting of COVID-19 should be guided by their potential impact on patient management. 

Recent small and single-center studies have suggested that CMR may detect abnormalities in asymptomatic patients who have had COVID-19 infection. This has led to a debate about the role of imaging, in particular CMR, as a screening tool. The clinical significance of these research findings remains uncertain and further long-term studies are needed to assess their impact. In accordance with the ACC guidance document and in view of the current limited evidence, SCMR does not support the routine use of any imaging tests, including CMR, in asymptomatic patients with a known history of COVID-19 infection.  

As the literature increasingly reveals cardiac involvement in COVID-19 there is a clinical role for CMR to play during the acute or symptomatic convalescent phase in some patients. SCMR has just released a guidance document with the recommended CMR imaging protocol to use for this group of patients. View the article in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance here. Also remember that you can help capture the use of CMR in COVID-19 around the globe by completing a short online survey (a combined SCMR and EACVI project) which takes only a few minutes.

Expected CMR-indications in patients within active or convalescent phase of COVID-19

At ESC 2020 Dr Niall Keenan presented the results of the third UK survey of CMR Units on behalf of the British Society of CMR (BSCMR). The survey was performed in 2019 collecting data on scanners, staffing, waiting times and scan volumes for the two previous years (2017 and 2018) as well as other questions such as provision for patients with implantable cardiac devices. The response rate was 100% of units, so the survey gives a comprehensive view of the state of CMR in the UK pre COVID-19.

The UK performed a total of 102,886 scans in 2017, and 117,967 in 2018 representing a 1-year 14.7% increase and a 10-year increase of 573% compared to 2008 data (20,597). By head of population in 2018 there were 1,776 CMR scans per million people, with significant variation nationally and regionally, e.g. 4,256 per million in London vs. 396 per million in Wales. The mean number of scans per unit was 1,404 (range 98-10,000) with wide variation in referral to diagnostic times (mean 45.7 days, range 5-180). There were 358 consultants reporting CMR (234 (65%) cardiologists and 124 (35%) radiologists). 81% of units had a CMR service for patients with pacemakers and defibrillators.

The conclusion was that the 10-year growth has been remarkable, and CMR volumes in the UK are high by international standards, but there are wide disparities in terms of use, access and wait times which need addressed to make CMR provision equitable across the UK.

The new 2020 ESC guidelines on NSTEACS was much awaited. Among the new key recommendations, it included a whole new section on myocardial infarction with nonobstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA). The new guideline states that CMR is now a Class IB recommendation for every patient with MINOCA without an obvious underlining cause. This is testament to the pivotal role that CMR plays in the work up of these patients – specifically, the ability to identify an underlying cause in >85%, leading to the most appropriate treatment.

The term MINOCA incorporates a heterogenous group of coronary and noncoronary pathological conditions including small embolic myocardial infarction, infarction with spontaneous recanalization, acute myocarditis, TakoTsubo cardiomyopathy and others. By consensus, the panel of experts proposed that myocarditis and Takotsubo syndrome should be excluded from the MINOCA definition, and have it reserved exclusively to the coronary-based conditions. This decision has created some debate on social media, well summarised in this twitter thread.

The debate between anatomical or functional imaging for coronary artery disease continues – but in reality both approaches have their merits and decisions are best made on an individual patient basis depending on the specific presentation. Meanwhile, two recent papers remind us of the particular strength of stress perfusion CMR imaging in different aspects of CAD assessment. In a large registry study (n = 6389) published in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging, Marcos-Garces et al demonstrated that revascularisation in patients with a large ischemic burden >5 segments (~>30% ischemic burden) on stress perfusion CMR was associated with lower all-cause mortality. Second, in another multi-center study published in JACC from the SCMR SPINS registry led by Raymond Kwong, Antiochos et al confirmed that presence of MI – whether clinically recognized or not - portended an equally significant risk of death independent of presence of ischemia. Compared with recognized MI patients, those with clinically unrecognized MI were less likely to receive guideline-directed medical therapies and presented an increased risk for heart failure hospitalization. Both of those studies at opposing ends of the CAD spectrum underline the prognostic importance of abnormal findings on stress perfusion CMR + LGE imaging protocols.

CMR in Brazil started in the late 1990s after fellows trained mainly in the US returned home and launched their clinical and training programs. The first training program was launched by the Heart Institute, University of Sao Paulo, and from there innumerous programs followed suit, providing long term, 2-year standardized fellowship positions in advanced cardiovascular imaging. The modality has flourished since then with more than 400 trained physicians and over 70 CMR centers covering a large area of the country.

The Early Career (EC) Section Chair was a new SCMR board of trustees (BOT) position announced in 2019 – and I was honored to be the first appointee into this role. The goal is to increase visibility of EC members, address their particular concerns and provide mentoring to become future CMR leaders themselves. I am an EC cardiologist at Loma Linda University and prior to that completed a multimodality imaging fellowship at University of California, San-Francisco. I have witnessed many difficulties posed to those in EC stages while trying to establish successful CMR programs at their own institutes. As I tried to navigate through my own challenges, I understood how important it is to have a voice as an EC representative, not only to establish a path forward for myself but also to leave an easier route for people behind me - the EC BOT position has allowed me to fulfil that role.

On Wednesday, September 23 the fifth Congenital CMR Case Conference (C4) developed by the Congenital Steering Board of the SCMR was held. This one hour video conference was packed with interesting, challenging and enlightening congenital cardiac cases with the main theme of “CMR in Pediatric Cardiomyopathy”. Audience participation and moderator discussion was geared towards practical tips from experts, new techniques, and trouble-shooting. The event was hosted by Dr. LaDonna Malone and Dr. Sujatha Buddhe. Guest speakers included Lindsay Griffin, MD of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago who presented “Cardiomyopathy assessment: What’s in your MRI toolbox”; and Lars Grosse-Wortmann, MD of OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital who presented “CMR in HCM risk prediction”. This webinar was recorded and will be available in the SCMR online learning portal in the coming weeks.

Past C4 events currently available in the SCMR online learning portal include:

Athens, Greece

October 3-5, 2020

Duke University School of Medicine

October 5-9, 2020

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

November 2-4, 2020

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Back in May, the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) launched an online survey to capture use of CMR is suspected COVID-19 cases around the globe.

We are making a push over the next month to record as much activity as possible before analysis begins- please contribute!

Each submission (one per scan) takes only five minutes and is entirely anonymous.

** Confirmed or high-probability COVID-19 cases can be included (regardless of test result)

** Both acute or recovery phase scans are eligible.

** You can also complete a survey for patients scanned in the past.

** Can easily be completed on your smartphone- just bookmark the page.