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Dear Colleagues,
The Fourth Leiden Cardiology Course will again
being held at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), The
Netherlands. This time the main focus will be on guidelines, in
particular the clinical application of guidelines in
cardiovascular medicine. Over the years, guidelines have become
the cornerstone and reference standard of the treatment of our
patients. Guidelines are being considered as true evidence-based
medicine as they rely, for the most part, on the outcome of
randomized clinical trials. The number of guidelines are
increasing both internationally and nationally in almost any
field of the cardiac spectrum of disease and diagnostic tools.
In the Netherlands we have in principle decided to endorse the
guidelines issued by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
At our 4th symposium the most recent ESC guidelines on valvular
heart disease, non-STEMI, pacing and atrial fibrillation will be
discussed. The guidelines on atrial fibrillation have been
published in 2006 whereas the guidelines on valvular heart
disease and non-STEMI have appeared in 2007. All ESC guidelines
are published in the European Heart Journal. The program of the
2008 meeting will not only include presentations by an
international faculty on recent guidelines but also includes
applications of guidelines by hands-on Echo/MSCT-training, and
life sessions in the catheterization laboratory with focus on
percutaneous coronary interventions and valve implantations.
Case discussions will be used to illustrate the 2008
state-of-the-art guidelines. Furthermore, new treatment options
in heart disease are paving their way in cardiovascular medicine
such as developments in cardiac imaging, cardiac
resynchronization therapy (CRT), and heart failure. Surgical
techniques have been developed to improve left ventricular
function by mitral valve repair and surgical remodeling. At the
end of our course, Dr. N.A. DeMaria, (University of California,
San Diego, USA), will give for the 28th time the prestigious
Einthoven Lecture entitled “How to translate scientific
literature into clinical practice: from JACC to bedside”. Dr.
DeMaria is currently Chief-Editor of the Journal of the American
College of Cardiology (JACC). About application of guidelines,
he remarked in his Editorial entitled ‘Populism in guideline
writing’: To be effective in improving clinical care, guidelines
must not only be based on evidence, but also be viewed as
objective and reflecting broad consensus. Anything less may be
inadequate to overcome the rugged individualism inherent to
physicians (JACC 2006:4:1109-10). We are very much looking
forward to meeting you in Leiden, 10 and 11 January, 2008. |
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