Cleveland Clinic’s crowd-pleasing biennial CME deep dive into aortic valve (AV) disease, “A Case-Based Approach to Mastering the Aortic Valve: Imaging, Innovation and Intervention,” returns to midtown Manhattan this December with its most ambitious agenda to date.

The course’s 16 expert faculty — cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons from Cleveland Clinic and three other leading U.S. cardiovascular centers — will touch on a wealth of timely issues in AV management across nine topical sessions on Friday, Dec. 15, and Saturday morning, Dec. 16, at the InterContinental New York Barclay.

Case-based discussion takes center stage, with case presentations figuring into nearly all topical sessions. Two sessions devoted to difficult scenarios in AV disease consist entirely of case studies, with the cases serving as a springboard to explore clinical decision-making. All cases are approached in a multidisciplinary fashion, featuring perspectives from a clinical or imaging cardiologist, an interventional cardiologist and a cardiothoracic surgeon.

Conditions and presentations explored in this comprehensive case-based manner include (among others):

• Low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis
• AV endocarditis
• Radiation heart disease with AV involvement
• Connective tissue disorders
• AV disease with concomitant left ventricular tract obstruction
• Heart failure with aortic insufficiency and aortic stenosis

Beyond the case-based explorations, highlights include the following:

• A kickoff overview of contemporary developments in AV disease
• A recap of key papers in AV disease over the past two years
• A “crystal ball” session profiling likely developments in AV disease in the next few years
• A “fireside chat” on the past, present and future of transcatheter AV replacement
• A concluding rapid-fire session on managing post-interventional issues

The program also addresses a number of special issues in AV disease management, such as gender-related differences in aortic stenosis presentation and outcomes as well as management and ethical issues in the care of very elderly patients with AV disease.

“This course will once again provide insights into investigating the patient with aortic valve disease as well as how to achieve excellent outcomes through best practice management and the selection and execution of surgical and interventional treatments,” says course co-director Lars Svensson, MD, PhD, Chair of Cleveland Clinic’s Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute (HVTI). His fellow course co-directors are Milind Desai, MD, MBA, HVTI Vice-Chair for Education; Brian Griffin, MD, Section Head of Cardiovascular Imaging; and Samir Kapadia, MD, Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine.

Adjournment of the course shortly after noon on Saturday allows time for weekend exploration of Manhattan at the height of its holiday decorations.

For more information and registration details, visit ccfcme.org/aorticvalve.

This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^™.