July 30, 2020
SCMR Summer Successes
Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It might be hot in our corner of the world, but that is not slowing down SCMR this summer. In this issue read about the success of SCMR hosting the live Faculty Panel Discussion portion of our first virtual Foundations of CMR Level 1 Workshop, obtaining Seed Grants and Abstracts for our Annual Scientific Sessions, our AMA membership drive, COVID-19 and regular Case submissions, and our Journal Webinars.

Looking ahead: Tune in next month to hear insights from a large Midwestern U.S. Health System on advancing CMR in the delivery of high-value cardiovascular care for patients with coronary and ischemic heart disease.

SCMR is beating the heat by staying active for our members!

Sincerely,
Subha Raman
Vice President, SCMR
SCMR Committee Update
Dear Early Career Investigators and Colleagues,

The Seed Grant Competition is now open! Projects fostering multi-institutional collaborations are encouraged and all submissions will be kept confidential. This is a great addition to your CV with the opportunity for the winners to present their research at the SCMR 25th Annual Scientific Sessions in 2022! Complimentary registration to the 25th Annual Scientific Sessions is included for the winners. To learn more about the Seed Grant Competition visit the webpage here . The deadline to submit is October 6, 2020.

The Scientific Committee continues to work on promoting novel research and scientific advances. Join us and become a committee member! Applications are always welcome, click here to apply . The Scientific Committee will be accepting new members at the end of the year for the next term 2021 – 2024. Look out for the call for new committee members later this year.

Erica Dall’Armellina
SCMR Scientific Committee Chair
Member Success Stories
CMR Services in Ireland
by Rory O'Hanlon

In 2009 following a three-year fellowship in the Royal Brompton Hospital, I came home to set up the first dedicated CMR service in Ireland. At that time, there was no dedicated cardiac MRI scanner or unit in Ireland, so initially in Blackrock Clinic, I would have to steal time on the scanner before the general radiology lists began. This for a number of years involved me scanning with one radiographer at 5am to 7am each morning in order to build up the service. This led to increased awareness of the service, increased referrals, a waiting list, and subsequently a successful business case for the purchase of a dedicated scanner in December 2012. 

Despite not having the dedicated scanner until 2012, we were able to increase output each year, and now currently on our dedicated scanner perform 5500 scans per year. Our 1.5T scanner runs from 7am-11pm Monday to Friday, and also at weekends. We also scan cardiacs on the 3T general MRI scanner on Sundays. This involves some logistics with regard to the working days of radiographers as well as medical cover, but all of this has been achievable without too much fuss. Our dedicated scanner provides scans for the whole nation of Ireland. 

Forty percent of our scans are, in fact, public patients and this highlights the success of public private partnerships. We guarantee a turn-around time of scans and reports within 24-hours for any urgent referrals or urgent inpatients. Owing to the volume of scans I, along with my colleague, Dr. Deirdre Waterhouse, have significantly improved our efficiency with regard to scan analysis and reporting, through our close collaboration with CircleCVi and Report 42.

We will be installing the second dedicated CMR scanner, hopefully in 2021, in Blackrock Clinic and also a new dedicated cardiac MRI scanner in our new venture in the Beacon Hospital. One of the aspects of our service, which we are particularly proud of, is our ability to digitally transfer representative cine and post contrast images to our referrers on the same day as the scan, particularly for important relevant findings. Obviously to be present in the scanner reporting room seven days a week is not possible so once appropriate medical cover is in place (often a trainee cardiology registrar or one of the house doctors in the hospital), we can ensure seven-day reporting via a VPN access to the cardiac MRI server in our hospitals. This obviously increases our workload to seven days a week but it is something that we have adapted to and accepted over the last ten years and both myself and Dr. Waterhouse do provide the service even when on annual leave or outside of the country. 
CMR News
Not Dead Yet: Imaging for Myocardial Viability Still Matters
by Mario J. Garcia

A state of the art review and scientific statement from the American Heart Association on non-invasive imaging methods for the assessment of myocardial viability has just been published in the July 13 issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. Although many experts have raised questions about the clinical utility of viability assessment following the initial publication of STICH and PARR-2, the need to evaluate patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy who may benefit from revascularization still exists. This new comprehensive review, endorsed by SCMR, presents a comprehensive analysis of the relevant literature published before and after these landmark studies, practical case examples and valuable commentaries from multimodality imaging experts in the topic.
The “How I Do Late Gadolinium Enhancement CMR” presentation is now available in Japanese! As members of the SCMR Translations Committee, Dr. Kei Nakata and Dr. Masaki preformed the translation to Japanese from the original presentation. The SCMR Translations Committee has also provided translations for this presentation in Italian and Spanish. To view this presentation and its translations, click here .   
Multimodality Imaging in Evaluation of Cardiovascular complications in Patients with COVID-19 
Standard evaluation and management of patients with suspected cardiovascular complications of COVID-19 is challenging. Given the overlap between COVID-19 presentations and typical cardiovascular diagnoses such as heart failure and acute myocardial infarction, there is often the need for advanced imaging techniques to assist in differential diagnosis and management. New guidance from the Expert panel from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Cardiovascular Imaging Leadership Council, has been published in JACC this month. The best multi-modality approach to several common scenarios among patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection and possible cardiovascular involvement are discussed - including chest discomfort with ECG changes, acute hemodynamic instability, newly-recognized left ventricular dysfunction, as well as imaging during the sub-acute/chronic phase of COVID-19. CMR is appreciated to have particular strength in these patients for evaluating complications or differentials including MINOCA, myocarditis, cytokine-storm myocardial injury, embolic MI, and Tako-Tsubo.
Strength in Numbers - Calling all US Physicians!
Join or Renew your American Medical Association Membership
In a big step for representation of our field, last year SCMR applied for and earned membership in the American Medical Association (AMA) Specialty and Service Society (SSS) Caucus thanks to your help. Without your individual membership in the AMA this would not have been possible. We need to continue this effort in order to maintain representation in the AMA SSS next year.   Any society applying to the AMA SSS must certify that a percentage of its members are also members of the AMA.

Participation in the AMA SSS, and ultimately the HoD, provides valuable opportunities to SCMR and its members.

Please join the AMA or renew your AMA membership today. Act now and take advantage of the 50% discounted AMA membership rate.

After you renew or join the AMA, please notify and provide us with your AMA member number by emailing SCMR Headquarters at HQ@SCMR.org .
SCMR Blog
Got a Question? Need an Answer? Check out the SCMR Blog!
SCMR Education Corner
Earn ABP MOC, Part 2, Points at
For the first time, SCMR will provide a mechanism for awarding Maintenance of Certification (MOC), part 2, points through the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP). Attendees at the 24 th Annual Scientific Sessions, 2021, San Diego, California who maintain board certification through the ABP require 40 Self-Assessment (Part 2) points each cycle. With the numerous educational opportunities in the field of pediatrics available at the Annual Scientific Sessions, this is an incredible opportunity.

Online Educational Opportunities
On July 24 SCMR hosted the live Faculty Panel Discussion portion of their first virtual Foundations of CMR Level 1 Workshop. Co-Chaired by Karen Ordovas, MD, MAS and David Saloner, PhD the workshop had 169 attendees from 29 countries around the world.
Allow experts to guide you through the fundamentals of CMR, reflecting on the added value of using CMR in clinical practice.

Now, for a limited time, the Workshop will only be available for new and returning members through the end of August.

JCMR Journal Club
Journal Club Editor: Dr. Raymond Kwong

Wednesday, August 12 @ 11:00 am ET

Presenting Author: Dr. Melanie Le

Article to be discussed:

Le et. al
If you missed a live webinar or want to review in further detail, recordings are available online and open to all members in the SCMR Online Learning Portal .

Please also review the blog for Q&As associated with the webinars.  
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JCMR CME Articles - Did you know?

SCMR offers CME for reading specific JCMR articles. View the listing of 20+ articles available. New articles added monthly!
SCMR COVID-19 Case Collection

A 74 year old man with a recent history of normal left ventricular ejection fraction of 55% was admitted to the hospital due to hemodynamically unstable new onset ventricular tachycardia (VT) lasting 12 hours. After unsuccessful self-administration of metoprolol, 200 mg orally, arrhythmia was managed with electrical cardioversion. Subsequently, symptomatic bradycardia and hypotension were observed. 


A 43-year-old male patient with unremarkable past medical history was admitted to the Infectious Diseases unit for suspected respiratory infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) resulting in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). On arrival, the patient reported fever that started 14 days before and persisted for 10 days, dry cough and hemoptoic sputum. Nasopharyngeal swabs were immediately obtained, confirming SARS-CoV-2 by a positive reverse transcriptase PCR. Viral serology by immunochromatography performed 15 days after onset of symptoms yielded IgM-negative and IgG-positive for SARS-CoV-2. 

SCMR Case of the Week
A 57 year old female with a past medical history of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), Loeffler’s endocarditis (LE), asthma, hypertension, and syncope with an implantable loop recorder presented for a follow up cardiac MRI to assess for disease progression and response to therapy. She has had known EGPA since 2007 and has had multiple prior cardiac MRI studies, which have been significant for biventricular subendocardial enhancement with overlying thrombus.    

#WhyCMR | Social Media
July 1 to July 26
#whyCMR Activity
by Amro Alsaid

Each month our social media committee correspondents update us on the latest #WhyCMR activity stats, most popular tweets or threads. Join the conversation and use the #WhyCMR in your social media posts!







Just for Fun
Pareidolia (/pærɪˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-DOH-lee-ə)
the tendency for incorrect perception of a stimulus as an object, pattern or meaning known to the observer, such as seeing shapes in clouds, seeing faces in inanimate objects…. or animals in your CMR images. Thanks to the contributors this month…if you do find any more animals, please tweet them out with hashtag #WhyCMR
JCMR Articles
Research
Cosimo M. Campanale, et al.
Published: 29 June 2020
CMR Literature Search

Please use this link for a filtered PubMed list of all CMR-related manuscripts for July 2020 – more than 320 in total!
SOCIETY FOR CARDIOVASCULAR
MAGNETIC RESONANCE

Manish Motwani
Newsletter Editor