Update on the Intermediate to Advanced Musculoskeletal MRI and Ultrasound

Conference & Workshop for Radiologists

August 17th to 19th 2017, Furama Hotel Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur

Register now for the limited seats.

Accreditation: 22 Category 1 CPD Points by Royal College of Radiologists UK

Capacity: Only 24 seats for maximum hands-on exposure and personal tutorials. Current availability will be stated in website under the Radiology link.

Pre requisite: Attended any Basic MSK MRI and Ultrasound Course and studied MSK MRI Reporting during Radiology training. Those who have attended the Penang Basic Course will find that this advanced course will take you to another level in accuracy of reporting as less time will be spent on basic teaching and more time on the common roadblocks and errors made in MSK MRI and Ultrasound reporting.

Key features:

  1. We keep the number of delegates to faculty in low ratio and give plenty of time for hands-on at the ultrasound demonstration so that we can answer all your questions and show you the latest techniques and advances in MSK Ultrasound imaging. In the ultrasound practical sessions, we don’t go through all the basic techniques but the delegates are given 10-15 minutes to begin by asking specific questions, eg: how to differentiate the infraspinatus insertion from the posterior SSP, how not to miss the free edge of SSP tears, the best way to assess the CFL and pitfalls of dynamic examination, updates on assessment of the deltoid ligament complex including anatomy in the lectures, etc.
  1. Carefully selected MSK MRI and USS DICOM videos (we have upgraded many of the videos now to high resolution DICOM images and not just the GOM AVI files). The USS images are taken from the high-end new ultrasound equipment over the last one and half years and shows the pathology exquisitely and GE and Philips will showcase their new equipment at the course.

As we need to spend less time on the basic teaching, the cases shown will be the cases which residents and fellows and general radiologists have missed important pathology. For instance, just yesterday there was an MRI request to look for MCL tears and the MCL was reported normal but actually there was marked capsular tears anteromedially but not the superficial MCL. Many ACL tears are misinterpreted which is very common and we go through many cases to show how to solve this. Flap tears of the meniscus are also commonly missed.

We discuss what is important to the orthopaedic surgeons, eg: grading of cartilage loss and mapping of the cartilage to let them know where the cartilage loss is exactly on the weight bearing area of the femoral condyle in the knee. Several examples are shown of various grades of loss of cartilage compared to the Penang course.

We spend more time on MRI arthrography of the shoulder , hip and wrist showing several cases.

More time is also spent on the less common anatomy and pathology of the upper limb and lower limb. Important nerve anatomy and pathology of the upper and lower limb which is not covered in the Penang course is covered in this KL course. In this course, we invite a rehabilitation specialist who is expert in ultrasound to teach muscle and nerve anatomy and the workbook that you receive will have additional cross sectional anatomy of the upper and lower limb which will be very useful when you need this for reporting CT, MRI or USS at your workstation.

  1. Focus is on how we really solve problems in patients in MSK symptoms using one or other modality or both MSK MRI and USS. We don’t just list all the abnormalities that are noted . We teach you how to decipher the clinical request to home in on what is it the orthopaedic surgeon wants from the report.

One does not use only MSK MRI or MSK USS and you will be taught which modality is better for which indication for accuracy of diagnosis. For instance, it is far more accurate to use Ultrasound for detection of ankle tendon and ligament tears than MRI as these structures are very small on MRI and often not clearly visualised in the 3mm slices but seen very well on ultrasound and function can be tested with dynamic examination.

  1. The Intermediate to Advanced course is aimed to bring your MSK MRI and Ultrasounds skills to a higher level and answer all the queries you might have. One way we do this is to ask each delegate to give us two queries that they want covered in the course teaching. This means that usually about 40 topics (with overlap of query) are covered which would be of interest to all participating as they would be the common hurdles faced in MSK MRI and USS reporting or performance.
  1. The course is held in Kuala Lumpur with its famed Twin Towers (which is actually visible from the Conference floor tea break room). It’s a great chance to shop and dine in Kuala Lumpur and air fares are cheaper as there are many direct flights to Kuala Lumpur especially if bought during promotions.
  1. An added bonus is the commencement of the South East Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur starting 19th August – 30th August 2017. This is a great opportunity to stay a few days to witness the opening ceremony and support your National teams while leveraging on the special delegate Furama room rates. August is also a celebratory month in Malaysia as the nation celebrates its Independence Day. During this time, you can enjoy some great bargains at the Malaysian Mega Sale Carnival which is the country’s biggest shopping event. Come with colleagues so that you can have company while enjoying the sights and sounds of Kuala Lumpur.

Places are limited and confirmation is based on actual payment of the registration at this stage.

We look forward to seeing you in Kuala Lumpur from the 17th to 19th of August 2017.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Dr John George

Course Coordinator

Global International Intermediate to Advanced Hands-On MSK MRI & Ultrasound Conference and

Workshop for Radiologists

MBBS (Adelaide), DMRD (Aberdeen), FRCR (UK)

Chief, Musculoskeletal Radiology, University of Malaya Medical Centre, Malaysia.