Dear Colleagues,

The syndrome of advanced heart failure is still difficult to manage despite advances in knowledge and treatment. As millions of people suffer from advanced heart failure and both mortality and morbidity are extremely high, this results in a yearly growing socio-economic problem asking for a structural and aggressive screening and treatment approach.

Recent years, new treatment modalities have been introduced. For example a number of randomized trials have demonstrated a positive effect of resynchronization therapy on mortality and functional status in patients already treated with optimal pharmaceutical therapy. Furthermore, new regenerative approaches and surgical techniques have been developed to improve left ventricular function and heart failure status. In addition, new cardiac imaging techniques, like tissue doppler imaging and cardiac CT, have been become available to improve screening and follow-up of patients.

To improve the outcome of patients with advanced heart failure, it will be necessary to implement all different treatment options in a standardized screening and treatment program. Furthermore it will be necessary to familiarize with some of the new techniques.

The program of the 2006 meeting will therefore not only include presentations by an international faculty about a number of interesting topics but also includes hands-on echo training, life sessions in the catheterisation laboratory, and read with the experts. Case discussions will be used to illustrate the 2006 state of the art in advanced heart failure management. The meeting will be held in Leiden at the well-equipped Leiden University Medical Center. During the meeting Prof. H. Drexler, Hannover, Germany will give the key-note lecture 2006 entitled: “Stem cell therapy of patients with endstage heart failure”.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Leiden, 16 and 17 January 2006.

Jeroen J. Bax, Martin J. Schalij, Ernst E. van der Wall

Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands