SAHPE, The Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication announced that the registration for SHAPE Carotid IMT Certification Workshop has begun. The event will take place on the 15th of January 2011 at Trevisio Restaurant and Conference Center in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. SHAPE is a non-profit organization aiming to improve early diagnosis and preventive measures in order to decrease the risks of cardiac attacks. The workshop will be attended by primary care physicians, cardiologists and radiologists.
The event will take place as a part of the SHAPE Provider Certification initiative, which is concentrating on following the best procedures to decrease the incidence of acute coronary events and mortalities from coronary artery disease. During the workshop, attendees are going to learn evaluate patients’ eligibility to undergo Carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) screening, a procedure that is carried out to identify hidden plaques while developing in coronary and carotid arteries. Attendees will also learn to how to use Carotid IMT in a primary care facility.
JoAnne Zawitoski, chair of the SHAPE Board of Directors, said “The SHAPE Carotid IMT Certification Workshop illustrates the ways SHAPE is working to raise the level of operator training and experience to achieve high quality results from atherosclerosis tests,” She added “By teaching providers how to responsibly employ scientifically proven screening methodologies such as Carotid IMT as a part of a physician’s preventive medicine practice, SHAPE Provider Certification is making progress toward improving clinical outcomes for patients.”
SHAPE recommends two non-invasive imaging procedures to detect atherosclerosis; one of them is Carotid IMT scanning by ultrasound. Carotid IMT is able to identify, and therefore decrease, asymptomatic risk of cardiac attack instead of depending on reviewing risk factors such as high cholesterol level and familial history. SHAPE also encourages coronary artery calcification scoring (CACS) by a computed tomography (CT) scan, the organization says that both tests should be added to a screening program for apparently healthy populations while they continue to grow.
