The 7th international Dead Sea symposium on cardiac arrhythmias and device therapy

Abstract

The 7th international Dead Sea symposium (IDSS) on cardiac arrhythmias and device therapy was held in Tel Aviv from October 17–20th 2004. Those who have attended some of the earlier IDSS conferences already knew that this meeting is worth while and colleagues who participated for the first time will confirm that the 7th IDSS was a very successful congress, despite being in Tel Aviv rather than the marvellous landscape surrounding the Dead Sea. There were more than 400 attendees from 21 countries, experts in electrophysiology and physicians in training enjoyed lectures given by faculties from 12 different countries. The IDSS congress offered new science, reviews of current knowledge in the field of pacing and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy, excellent training courses, “how to” workshops on physiological pacing, management of difficult ICD implantations, and a live demonstration of echocardiographic assessment of haemodynamic improvement after cardiac resynchronization with biventricular pacing (given by M.V. Pitzalis and M. Feinberg). Of note was the idea to arrange a session for physicians in internal medicine to raise issues with specialists in electrophysiology and for the latter to discuss the relevant cardiology. This included dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, renal failure and syncope in the elderly – all in the context of arrhythmias. …