Welcome to this issue of European Cardiology. The pace of change in cardiology continues unabated, with trial results, original papers and breaking news frequently changing what we know – or indeed what we think we know. The ultimate challenge for any practising cardiologist is to stay abreast of these changes. A plethora of excellent highimpact journals and events – not least those organised through the associations, councils and working groups of the European Society of Cardiology – provide a wonderful platform for our professional growth.
Even with such priceless structures of learning and support, the following challenge remains: amid all this change, how can we remain informed of best practice, not just in our core areas of interest but also beyond, in the wider cardiovascular field? It is here that European Cardiology, now in its sixth year (but in its first issue as a quarterly journal), hopes to make a contribution. Comprising selected reviews, European Cardiology seeks to educate in an accessible and convenient manner, tailored specifically to the needs of the time-pressured physician. By providing updates on salient topics and advances, it is hoped that within these pages every cardiovascular professional will find articles of interest from their personal area of specialisation – and indeed on other key issues spanning the breadth of the field.
Among the papers included here, Drs Collet and van Werkum report on individualised antiplatelet therapy and investigate the need for platelet function testing in routine clinical practice. Elsewhere, Dr Jeffrey Moses and colleagues present a timely update on the management of the asymptomatic diabetic patient with evidence of ischaemia.
In the imaging section, Dr Adrian Chenzbraun, in his paper ‘Pitfalls and Challenges in the Echocardiographic Diagnosis of Aortic Stenosis’, discusses patients who present with perplexing haemodynamic patterns and echocardiographic results. Dr Chenzbraun calls for awareness of the sources of possible errors and stresses the need for informed consideration of less typical echocardiographic results for the comprehensive management of the aortic stenosis patient. Also in imaging, Drs James P Earls and Jonathon Leipsic address the heightened concern of a risk of increasing radiation exposure from cardiac and general diagnostic computed tomography imaging. The authors examine the role of optimised selection of user-defined parameters and voltage – in addition to technologies such as prospective triggering – in achieving a substantial reduction in radiation dose without loss of diagnostic accuracy.
Spatial constraints deny me the opportunity to list the many other valuable contributions enclosed within. I hope that within your busy schedule you may find a few moments to enjoy them.