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Latest Articles
The European Society of Cardiology Education Committee aims to promote excellent National Society projects to a European audience. The European Society of Cardiology in association with the British Cardiovascular Society and BMJ Publishing is delighted to offer its members free access to Education in Heart, a continuing professional development programme for established and trainee cardiologists. The programme covers the full ESC Core Curriculum and is accredited by the European Board for Accreditation in Cardiology (EBAC).
The editorial board of Education in Heart is led by Dr Peter Mills and is supported by an international group of subspecialty section editors. All articles are written by a leading international specialist. Education in Heart is published in Heart the official journal of the British Cardiac Society. It comprises three state-of-the-art educational articles in each monthly issue of the journal and these are accompanied by 6 multiple choice questions for online assessment. This service will provide ESC members with access to all future and past Education in Heart articles. Over 200 articles are presently available and each article is accredited for 1 hour of CME credit by EBAC if you correctly answer the accompanying multiple choice questions on BMJ Learning (requires one-time registration on BMJ Learning).
The Heart website is hosted by HighWire press which offers the following sophisticated functionality:
- Articles can be grouped by topic (following the ESC core curriculum)
- Many cited references link directly to the full text of that article (free access)
- Users can be alerted as new articles are published
- RSS functionality
- Searches and articles can be saved in personalised folders
The latest articles accredited by EBAC are listed below:
Defining myocardial infarction: a work in progress
Paul W Armstrong
The 2007 definition of myocardial infarction is expected to have important public policy as well as other broad implications with its implementation; however, challenges will exist concerning the availability of cardiac troponins and the application of these definitions in developing countries. Cultural, financial, structural, and organisational issues within differing countries require appropriate attention so that the gap between therapeutic and diagnostic advances in acute ischaemic heart disease can be appropriately addressed. As was the case with the 2000 definition, the joint (ESC/ACC) task force is cognisant that future scientific advances guarantee a need for future refinement and revisiting of the definition of myocardial infarction.
Diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD)
Nicola Johnston, Henry Dargie, and Alan Jardine
Patients with CKD are at a substantially higher risk of death due to CVD than the general population, and exclusion of patients with CKD from the majority of cardiovascular clinical trials has led to therapeutic nihilism for many of these patients. The limited available evidence supports an aggressive approach to both primary and secondary prevention of CAD, with instigation of early medical treatment for risk factor control, adopting a high clinical suspicion of a diagnosis of CVD in patients presenting acutely, and performing early angiography with appropriate coronary revascularisation in the setting of acute coronary syndromes.
Valvular and coronary heart disease in systemic inflammatory diseases
Carlos A Roldan
Systemic lupus erythematosus, primary antiphospholipid syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and scleroderma are immune mediated inflammatory diseases that manifest predominantly with symptoms and signs of musculoskeletal and mucocutaneous inflammation. However, they frequently cause cardiovascular disease, which is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, and the clinical detection of cardiovascular disease is significantly lower than that of cardiac imaging or post-mortem series. Therefore, an increased awareness and understanding of these diseases may lead to an increase in recognition, treatment, and prevention of the associated cardiovascular involvement.