Courses

Course Objectives

CPD: 9th International LVV, GCA and PMR Ultrasound Symposium' (code: 130822) has been approved for 16 credits by the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (16 category 1 (external) CPD credit(s)).

A sample programme is available here. Please note this is subject to change.

Click here for an article featured in the PMR/GCA Winter issue about GCA conference.

• The approach to disease identification and stratification in GCA, PMR and LVV: a probability-based approach.
• The role of imaging including MRI, CT and PET-CT scanning in GCA, PMR and LVV for diagnosis, prognosis, assessment and monitoring.
• Identification of normal vascular sono-anatomy.
• To perform systematic ultrasound scanning of the temporal arteries, large supra-aortic vessels, shoulders and hips.
• To identify basic and complex vascular pathological sonographic findings.
• To learn to assess the quantitative GCA Halo score.

Live Demonstrations and Supervised Hands on Workshops

• The use of Colour Doppler ultrasonography and ultrasound system settings.
• Identification of vascular sono-anatomy.
• Standardised sonographic scanning of the temporal arteries, large supra-aortic vessels and Aorta.
• Scanning of patients with vascular pathological sonographic findings in GCA.
• Scanning of vascular findings in GCA-mimicking conditions.
• Assessment of the GCA Halo score and reliability exercise.

Content

• Focused ultrasound course on systemic large vessel vasculitis, which consists of 16 hours of activities over 2 days.
• 6 hours for lectures and live demonstrations.
• 10 hours for supervised hands-on scanning of models, patients with large vessel vasculitis and patients with GCA mimics.
• 16 CPD points for the meeting will be applied for.

Organising Committee

Chief organiser: Professor Bhaskar Dasgupta

Conference organisers : Orca Medical Ltd

Course Tutor(s)

Professor Bhaskar Dasgupta

Professor Dasgupta is regarded as one of the leading clinicians in his specialty worldwide, and has helped Southend University Hospital grow to become one of the foremost centres of Rheumatological advancement globally. The Unit is renowned for research, teaching and training. Also a Clinical Director of Research at the Hospital, he was awarded an Honorary Professorship by the University of Essex - the hospital's first professorship at a United Kingdom university, and has been key to forging strong links between the hospital and academia, with the relationship of the University of Essex and Southend Hospital.

Wolfgang Schmit

Wolfgang Schmidt was born and received his medical education in Berlin, Germany. He received his degree in internal medicine in 1989 and in emergency medicine in 1992. He became a senior physician at Immanuel Krankenhaus Berlin, Medical Centre for Rheumatology in Berlin-Buch in 1993 and received his rheumatology degree in 1996. Since 2005 he is deputy director and rheu- matology fellowship director of this hospital. His scientific work focuses on musculoskeletal ul- trasound and on imaging in vasculitis. He completed habilitation in 2002 and became a professor of Free and Humboldt Universities in Berlin in 2010.From 1999 to 2009 he conducted ultrasound workshops at annual ACR meetings. He is teaching at ultrasound courses worldwide and orga- nized the EULAR ultrasound courses in 2002, 2004 and 2012. He initiated the Eular Ultrasound Trainer Courses in 2012. He has first described the ultrasound halo sign in giant cell arteritis (GCA; Lancet 1995) and has published the first study on ultrasound in GCA (NEJM 1997). In the late 1990ies he has introduced the first ultrasound fast-track clinic in Berlin-Buch which to date sees 100 patients annually with newly diagnosed GCA. He convened the EULAR guidelines on imaging in large vessel vasculitis (LVV) and leads the OMERACT group on ultrasound in LVV. He is principal investigator of phase 2 and 3 trials in GCA.

Vanessa Quick

Dr Vanessa Quick is a consultant rheumatologist and GCA lead at Bedfordshire Hospitals where she has been developing a rheumatologist led ultrasound driven GCA Fast Track Pathway for the last five years. She has more than 500 TAUS scan experience, has achieved Bluteq status for to-cilizumab use at the Trust, is a member of the ENRAD GCA specialist Panel, won the BSR Paul Bacon Award for improved outcomes in the Luton GCA FTP, regularly teaches and lectures on the use of ultrasound in GCA diagnosis and has authored editorials, review articles, book chapters and case reports on GCA.

Alessandro Tomelleri

Dr Alessandro Tomelleri graduated in Medicine at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Milan, Italy) and completed a residency program in Clinical Immunology at the same Institution. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Experimental and Clinical Medicine with a project focused on giant cell arteritis pathogenesis. Dr Tomelleri has a deep interest in the field of large-vessel vasculitis and, to enhance his expertise, he spent 5 months as a Research Fellow at the Rheumatology Department of the Southend University Hospital (UK). There, under the mentorship of Professor Dasgupta, he improved his skills with vascular ultrasound. Thanks to this experience, he has recently established the first GCA Fast-Track clinic at his Institution.

Diana Prieto

Diana Prieto-Peña is a Consultant Rheumatologist at Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital and is a member of the Epidemiology, Genetics and Atherosclesosis Research Group on Systemic Inflammatory Diseases at the Valdecilla Research Institute (IDIVAL), Spain. She received her medical degree in 2015 from the University of Cantabria and completed her residency in Rheumatology at Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital (2016-2020). She was a research fellow at the Department of Rheumatology of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom (2020). She is currently doing a Master degree in Molecular Biology.Dr. Prieto-Peña research is focused on genetics and immunopathology of polymyalgia rheumatica and vasculitis, particularly on large vessel vasculitis and IgA vasculitis. She has published over 40 reviewed articles and 2 book chapters. She is the author of one chapter of the EULAR online course on Rheumatic Diseases. She is currently working on her PhD that focuses on the genetics of extracranial large-vessel giant cell arteritis. She has obtained a research contract from the Carlos III Health Institute of Spain (Rio Hortega program, ref. CM20/00006), in 2021-2022.

Alwin Sebastian

Currently a Consultant Rheumatologist at University Hospital Limerick, Ireland. Honorary research fellow at Southend University Hospital, UK. He completed a Fellowship in GCA funded by a grant from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) (Bresnahan-Molloy educational fellowship award) under the mentorship of Professor Dasgupta at Southend. Dr Sebastian holds the MRCP both in UK and Ireland. He has completed a Masters in Rheumatology at King's College London with a Merit and is currently a PhD candidate in Giant Cell Arteritis at the University of Essex. He is presently leading a prospective multicentre (international) observational study in GCA (HAS GCA) which is included within the NIHR portfolio in the UK. He is an external tutor for the first contact practitioners (MSK masters) at the University of Essex, UK. He won the Paul Bacon Vasculitis research award from the British Society of Rheumatology in 2020 and runners up in William Stokes trainee research award from RCPI in 2021.

Amin Kershid

Dr Khurshid works as a Consultant Rheumatologist at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust. He is currently the clinical lead for the rheumatology services at Poole Hospital and also leads GCA and vasculitis services in Dorset. His main areas of interest include musculoskeletal sonography and Giant Cell Arteritis. After getting his training in temporal artery ultrasound at Southend, Dr Khurshid has set up a rapid access GCA service for the county of Dorset. He is actively involved in research around GCA and is a part of multiple multicentre trials.

Mahdi Abusalameh

Consultant Rheumatologist and Physician, experienced in musculoskeletal and large vessel vasculitis ultrasound, and has tutored GCA US at several meetings and workshops. He has EFSUMB level 1 diploma in MSK US. In 2017, he set up and has been leading the Exeter GCA fast track pathway incorporating the use of ultrasound. He is PI of several studies on large vessel vasculitis locally. He was awarded the Local Clinical Excellence Award in 2019 for his work to improve GCA service and clinical pathway. Dr Abusalameh serves the Royal College of Physicians as a clinical examiner.

Chetan Mukhtyar

Dr Mukhtyar is a consultant in rheumatology at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital since 2009. He is the vasculitis lead and runs a dedicated GCA service. He has used ultrasonogra-phy since 2013 and is a member of the OMERACT large vessel ultrasonography group. He has published widely including supervising, convening and co-authoring international recommenda-tions for the management of primary systemic vasculitis.

Fiona Coath

Dr Fiona Coath is a Rheumatology registrar currently working in the East of England deanery. Since starting her Rheumatology career as a research fellow at Southend University Hospital in 2017, she has continued to have an interest in GCA, including the use of ultrasound in its diagno-sis and management. As a research fellow she learnt vascular ultrasound and helped run the GCA fast-track clinic. She co-authored the British Society for Rheumatology online learning module for vascular ultrasound, teaching on its first outing at the BSR ultrasound course in Belfast 2019. She has also published several relevant papers in the field.