CMR Essentials course

Topography, planning, left ventricular function and protocols in cardiac MR

A short, interactive course for radiographers and physicians starting out in cardiac magnetic resonance. It starts from the basics and builds step by step: each lesson explains, asks and unlocks the next one.

Start free with lesson 1 →🔑 I have a code

8 lessons
79 questions
Planning simulator
Spanish and English
On your phone or computer

Short axis and the 4-chamber view planned from it, INCIC CMR cine

What is it about?

The course teaches you to find your way around the heart and to plan the left ventricular axes, and then to assess global and regional function and to know the protocols and sequences of a scan.

Lessons combine illustrations, real cines and quick questions. Left ventricular axes ends with a game where you tap the walls each axis cuts, and Planning with a two-step simulator to plan the 3C, 4C and 2C.

Who is it for?

Radiographers and physicians starting out in cardiac MR, or who want to put the basics in order. Questions only cover what the course has already explained.

Syllabus

🫀Lesson 1FreeCardiac topography
How the heart sits in the chest, what the cardiac axes are, and how the LV walls and 17 segments are named.
- •An inverted pyramid
- •Three levels: basal, mid and apical
- •What are the cardiac axes?
- •Left and right long axes
- •The three myocardial layers
- •Four walls and six segments
- •The 17 segments
- •Segments from different axes
🧭Lesson 2Left ventricular axes
Which walls and segments each LV long axis (4C, 3C and 2C) cuts, and how to spot a misaligned plane.
- •The 4C, 3C and 2C long axes
- •4-chamber (4C)
- •3-chamber (3C)
- •2-chamber (2C)
- •2-chamber is not bicommissural
- •Long axes on the bullseye
➡️Lesson 3Right axes
The long axes of the right heart: RV 2C and 3C and the RV outflow tract, how to plan them and how they look on cine.
- •The right long axes
- •RV 2-chamber
- •RV 3-chamber
- •RV outflow tract: sagittal
- •RV outflow tract: “axial”
- •Higher-quality RV cines
- •Dedicated RV protocol (arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy)
📏Lesson 4Wall thickness
Why LV wall thickness matters, its causes and thresholds, how to measure it well and which patterns and pitfalls to look for.
- •LV wall thickness
- •Thresholds
- •How to measure
- •Calipers, chords and Laplace
- •Thickness gradient
- •Indexing wall thickness
- •Distribution of thickness
- •Thickness ≠ mass
- •Pseudo-thickening
🎯Lesson 5Planning
From localisers to pilots and the short axis, then the two-reference recipe to plan the 3C, 4C and 2C in the simulator.
- •Localisers (LOCS)
- •Bright blood and black blood
- •Pilot planes
- •Pilot 2C and pilot 4C
- •Pilot short axis and using references
📈Lesson 6Systolic function
Ejection fraction, volumes, how to contour and how to check that the numbers make sense.
- •More than the ejection fraction
- •Ejection fraction (EF %)
- •Left and right EF
- •Contour the whole stack
- •Trabeculae and papillary muscles
- •Visual estimate of EF
🧩Lesson 7Regional function
Wall motion: normokinesia, hypokinesia, akinesia and dyskinesia, how they relate to LGE, and pseudodyskinesia.
- •Regional wall motion
- •Types of wall motion
- •Two-chamber examples
- •Wall motion and LGE
- •Practice: two cases
- •Pseudodyskinesia (PDK)
📋Lesson 8Protocols and sequences
How a CMR protocol is built around the clinical question, what each sequence is for, what it looks like and what it is called on Siemens, GE, Philips and Canon.
- •Clinical CMR protocols
- •Basic cardiomyopathy protocol
- •An example, step by step
- •What each sequence is for
- •What each sequence looks like
- •How each one is acquired
- •What each vendor calls them
- •Fast cardiomyopathy protocol (COR 5)

How it works

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Lesson 1 is free

Start now, no sign-up needed.

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Personal code

The rest of the course unlocks with a code from INCIC. It arrives by email with a link that activates it in one click.

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XP and badges

Each lesson ends with questions, earns points and awards a badge. Your progress is saved in your browser.

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INCIC certificate

On completing the course (coming soon).

Beta

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