NCVH Welcomed 72 Attendees to Third Annual Fellows Course

NEW ORLEANS - June 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Seventy-two fellows attended the New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) Third Annual Fellows Course, Complex Strategies for Peripheral Interventions, on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, at the New Orleans Marriott. The program is open to third and fourth year fellows in interventional cardiology, interventional radiology and vascular surgery in a U.S. fellowship program.

NCVH Fellows Course Chairmen Carlos Mena, MD, and Craig Walker, MD, led the program, which opened with a Welcome Dinner sponsored by Boston Scientific on Monday, June 3.

The program’s format had two parts. The morning agenda consisted of 19 presentations by industry experts on the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD), critical limb ischemia (CLI) and an overview of medical devices used in the treatment of these diseases.

Dr. Walker told the audience that there is a current epidemic of PAD affecting an estimated 20 million people. “The overwhelming majority of patients with PAD are undiagnosed,” he said. “So if you don’t take their shoes off and take their pulse, you are going to miss cases. The patient may not need an intervention in terms of a balloon or a stent, but they do need an intervention.”

Dr. Walker said PAD is associated with poor long-term survival, patients must have a longitudinal follow up and that amputation should always be a last – not first – result.

Prakash Krishnan, MD, encouraged fellows to start looking at angiograms. “When you start looking at angiograms, you start to anticipate what’s happening,” he said.

Thomas Shimshak, MD, talked about appropriate device selection. “Considerations include clinical presentation, location, extent and complexity of disease and treatment objective,” Dr. Shimshak said, discussing the spectrum of device selections, device selection for PAD stealth devices, and device selection and tips for renal and mesenteric arteries, including selecting the appropriate stent length and diameter.

Fellows then had the opportunity to get a closer look at some of the devices they heard about during the morning presentations. Ten companies set up hands-on simulation stations for attendees to rotate through, often having the opportunity to test out their ability to operate these devices.

The NCVH 2014 Fellows Course will be held on Tuesday, May 27, 2014. Visit www.ncvh.org to learn more.

About NCVH
New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) is a peripheral intervention conference focusing on peripheral artery disease (PAD) with a special emphasis on critical limb ischemia (CLI). The goal of NCVH is to bring together key disciplines to focus on the team approach to total cardiovascular care in patients with PAD and CLI. This approach creates an environment for clinical collaboration to address the continuum of care for the patient. NCVH is hosted annually in New Orleans and is well known for hospitality and a family friendly environment. NCVH 2014 is scheduled for May 28-30, 2014. Visit www.ncvh.org to learn more.