DR. A. OKTAY ERGENE, NEW CANDIDATE FOR ESC BOARD COUNCILLOR

The Turkish Society of Cardiology (TCS) nominated Asim Oktay Ergene MD FESC as a candidate for one of the 6 Councillor positions of the ESC Board for the 2012-2014 term. His candidacy was officially accepted in the announcement of the final slate by the ESC nominating committee on 4 May 2012. He joins 11 other candidates for the ballot, the results of which will be announced on 1 July 2012.

Dr Ergene, Professor of cardiology in Izmir, Turkey, is the immediate Past President of the TCS having completed his term in April 2012. At home he has made significant contributions to cardiology policy including the development of the first National Heart Health Policy of Turkey. He has served in past ESC activities and has been actively involved in promoting the integration of Turkey into the European practice of cardiology.

THE EUROPEAN HEART JOURNAL ON THE ROAD

The Best of EHJ Session at the Scientific Congress of the Hungarian Society of Cardiology 2012

The “Best of the European Heart Journal” (EHJ) sessions were introduced at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Annual Congress in Stockholm, 2010 with great success and ever since have become an established part of its scientific programme. Last year this feature was introduced at EuroPCR in Paris and repeated on 16 May at this year‘s EuroPCR. For the first time such a session was part of the EuroPRevent Congress on 3 May 2012 in Dublin, Ireland. Another EHJ session is planned at the Heart Failure Congress of the ESC Heart Failure Association in Belgrade 19-22 May 2012.

The EHJ is also keen to bring the best of its content to the National Societies, of the ESC. Indeed, the EHJ as the official journal of the ESC together with its subspecialty sister journals is one of the major sources of information for European Cardiologists.
This year the editor-in-chief Thomas F. Lüscher chaired a scientific session together with the current president of the Hungarian Society of Cardiology Béla Merkely on antiplatelet therapy of cardiovascular disease at their annual congress in Belatonfüred on 11 May, 2012. The best papers from the focus issue on this topic published in the December issue of the EHJ were presented by excellent speakers (see below) and put into the context of other studies published in this area.

Franz Weidinger

Franz Weidinger from Vienna elegantly presented the Austrian Acute Coronary Syndrome Registry and his analysis on the effects on clopidogrel pre-treatment on mortality of ST-segment elevation infarctions (Eur Heart J (2011) 32(23): 2954-2961). Thanks to a large sample size and sophisticated statistical analyses he was able to show that pre-treatment with clopidogrel is in fact associated with a reduction in mortality in these patients.

Frank Visseren

Frank Visseren from Utrecht University then presented a collaborative project with Harvard Medical School on a novel statistical analysis to assess the effect of preventive measures in certain patient subsets – an innovative step towards personalized medicine using mainly clinical and routine laboratory data. As an example he analysed the preventive effects of Aspirin in women (Eur Heart J (2011) 32(23): 2962-2969).

Sukhjinder Nijjer

Finally, Sukhjinder Nijjer from the Imperial College in London presented a meta-analysis on the safety of clopidogrel continued until the time of coronary artery bypass surgery in patients with acute coronary syndrome (Eur Heart J (2011) 32(23): 2970-2988).

Based on the success of this first event, the EHJ is eager to continue this initiative and will offer the “Best-of-the-EHJ” Sessions to other National Societies of the ESC.