Non-DVM Echocardiography Certification Program Case Report Guidelines

1. Candidate’s name
2. Patient’s name
3. Case category (specific pathology)
4. Date of original submission

Cases to be submitted:
One canine normal and one feline normal will be required after acceptance into the program. Once those are passed, 8 cases with pathology (10 total) will be submitted. The eight cases with pathology should have different pathologies, each of which the candidate will describe in detail. There should be at least 2 feline and 2 canine cases, though more than two can be submitted. The cases are not required to be submitted in any particular order, though should be submitted one at a time to permit assessment and suggestions for future case submission improvement. 

• Examples include – Any valvular disease, infectious (infective endocarditis), myocardial disease (feline HCM, NSM, DCM; canine DCM), any congenital disease, any type of neoplasia and pericardial disease (before and after pericardiocentesis, if possible).  Do not submit more than one of each pathology.
• 2D and M-Mode exam will include right and left sided imaging planes with correctly obtained M-modes, when applicable (i.e. Feline LV measurements are 2D only), and measurements of size and function.
• Doppler exam will include forward flow across all valves, including color flow and spectral Doppler.  Use of PW and CW Doppler where appropriate as necessary to demonstrate flow profiles, velocities, and PG.  Demonstrate knowledge of the use of spectral Doppler to assess flow abnormalities, pressure gradients, transvalvular flow, IVRT, pulmonary venous flow, etc. (see protocol).

1. A patient history section with any available lab work and radiographs. Specific abnormal cardiac clinical signs and auscultation findings should be described.  Blood pressure measurements should be included, if possible.
2. The submitted case report will include all images (Core),  with measurements (2D, M-mode, Doppler tracings). The order of images in the study should demonstrate how you perform an exam. Date of exam, name of patient, and facility must be on all images.  Still images of measurements and representative images of planes showing pertinent pathology should be included in the Word document and all Core and clinically relevant Elective video clips should be uploaded as DICOM to a Dropbox folder or other designated site.
3. A sonographic findings section: List all sonographic findings (normal and abnormal) and your echocardiographic impressions. This will be the most important section of the report to list all the abnormal findings. 
4. References, at least 5, must be cited. No more than 50% of the references should be from textbooks, and the remainder should be from published articles. The relevance of each cited reference should be explained clearly in the case study text. 

Evaluation of a case report is based on these criteria.  If that criterion is not followed, the case report will not be accepted.  After rejection of 10 cases, the participant will be discontinued from the program with no financial reimbursement.  

IVUSS STANDARD CANINE ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC PROTOCOL

IVUSS STANDARD FELINE ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC PROTOCOL

• At least for the first 3 cases, the candidate should wait to submit another case until the previous case receives final approval. This allows the candidate to incorporate what they have learned into future case reports.The candidate should wait to submit another case until the previous case receives final approval. This allows the candidate to incorporate what they have learned into future case reports.
• Case report revisions are common.
• Case reports #1, 4, and 8 will also be reviewed by a board certified cardiologist. 
• A select number of still 2D, M-mode and measurement of 2D images and spectral Doppler images can be included in the report, but the rest should be uploaded and included with the videos. All videos must be submitted in DICOM format. The case report and videos will be placed in a single folder, then compressed in Zip format. This Zip file will be uploaded to the candidate's designated IVUSS DropBox folder.