A total of 363 scientific sessions will be organised in 29 lecture rooms. The pre-arranged programme includes the Named Lectures, Clinical Symposia and Seminars, and exciting Debates.
The theme of this year's congress is cardiovascular imaging, with 73 sessions dedicated to this topic. Over recent years, imaging has become a key component in clinical cardiology. Cardiologists have witnessed ultra-fast technical developments, with current modalities providing three- and four-dimensional visualisation of the cardiovascular system. The latest technological developments of the four main non-invasive imaging modalities (echocardiography, nuclear imaging, MRI and cardiac CT) are highlighted in a variety of sessions.
All together these imaging modalities can provide comprehensive information on every component of the heart and the coronary arteries, from anatomy to function and perfusion. Most importantly, our emphasis will be on the integration of imaging in clinical practice: which imaging technique for which patient under which circumstances; this will be addressed in practical Read with- and Meet the Expert Sessions. The number of these sessions has been expanded because of increasing popularity over recent years.
Two Main Sessions are dedicated to imaging: “The year in cardiac imaging”, covering the most recent developments, and “Cardiac imaging in 2020”, addressing the future.
The new ESC 2008 guidelines on heart failure, ST-elevation myocardial infarction, biopsy in heart disease and pulmonary embolism will be presented.
The popular FOCUS sessions will broadcast live transmissions from various locations in Europe, and will demonstrate practical skills in the fields of imaging and intervention. The FOCUS Clinical Practice sessions will be structured around highly clinically relevant topics, and knowledge will be shared with the audience in a very interactive way.
In three Hot Lines and three Clinical Trial Updates news on the late-breaking and recently published trials will be presented. New this year are three Meet the Trialist sessions taking place shortly after the Hot Lines and providing the audience an opportunity to interact directly with trialists from three major clinical trials (SYNTAX, BEAUTIFUL and GISSI-Heart Failure).
Original science will be presented in oral abstract sessions, moderated posters or traditional posters. We would like to thank the 1000 reviewers who graded almost 10,000 abstracts of which 3532 were accepted for presentation. On Sunday five young investigator competitions will take place and the winners will be recognised during a special Awards Ceremony on Tuesday (2nd September) on the ESC Stand.
A very important component of the meeting is basic science, organised in the Basic Science Track, with the best scientific submissions presented in the Science Hot Line on Monday (1st September).
Do not miss the State of the Art and Featured Research sessions on Wednesday, with keynote lectures by top experts in the field, in combination with oral presentations of the top five ranked abstracts in particular fields.
And as happened last year, the five ESC Associations will report on their own annual meetings or present the latest news in 90-minute sessions organised in the Associations Track.
The meeting will close on Wednesday with the traditional Highlight Session providing a comprehensive summary on the most important topics presented at this ESC Congress. We very much look forward to greeting you in Munich!
Kim Fox
President, European Society of Cardiology
Jeroen Bax
Chairperson, Congress Programme Committee