Media alert: EUROECHO 2009

EUROECHO 2009 is the official congress of the European Association of Echocardiography (EAE), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology, where techniques of non-invasive diagnostic imaging will be presented.

New case reports will be presented at this year's Congress, with the latest evidence highlighting the role of this new technology.

Now, with such rapid development in imaging techniques, it is likely that non-invasive imaging will gain more importance in clinical cardiology - and probable also that these more accurate tests will revolutionise the diagnostics of cardiac diseases in the near future.

The emergence and wider use of these techniques over the past two decades - in echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, cardiac computed tomography - have been accompanied by a corresponding decline in mortality related to coronary artery disease, which, says Dr Luigi Badano, chairman of the Congress Programme Committee, must in some part be explained by new technology.

More than 3,000 participants are expected to attend this year's congress, whose two main themes are cardiomyopathies (deterioration in the function of the heart muscle as a result of disease) and three-dimensional echocardiography.

EUROECHO 2009 will take place at IFEMA - Feria de Madrid. It is the 13th annual meeting of the European Association of Echocardiography (EAE)- the oldest association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Find more information on EUROECHO here (1) and plan your congress attendance on a day-by-day basis with the scientific programme online. Online press registration has now closed but onsite registrations will be accepted with a valid press card or letter of assignment with proof of 3 published articles. An embargo form must be signed for every registration. A press pack with press release, association information, floor plan, flyers and more is available to every registered press member.

Source: European Society of Cardiology