The European Heart Journal goes global: the road ahead of the editorial team 2009-2011

Abstract

Over centuries, the contributions of Europe to the science and practice of cardiology have been impressive and sustained. They began with the seminal discovery of the circulation by William Harvey and the publication of De motu cordis in 1616, and continued with John Whithering in 1785 and Thomas Lauder Brunton 1863 who were the first to attempt to treat cardiac diseases with herbs and drugs. At the beginning of the 20th century, William Einthoven developed the electrocardiogram, and Werner Forssmann attempted the first cardiac catheterization on himself. Both were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, in 1924 and 1956, respectively. The contributions of Sir Thomas Lewis to translating physiological observations into the clinical arena also had a major impact. Furthermore, seminal surgeons such as Clarence Crafoord at the Karolinska Institutet, Russel Claude Baron Brock in London, and Ake Senning in Zurich, among others, pioneered the surgical management of patients with congenital heart disease. In the late 1960s, Hein Wellens and his Dutch colleagues developed invasive electrophysiology and changed the understanding of arrhythmias. In a bold step, Andreas R. Gruntzig opened the door to interventional cardiology on 16 September 1977 when he first used a balloon catheter to dilate a stenosis in the left anterior descending coronary artery in a patient with angina pectoris at the University Hospital Zurich. Outside academic institutions, the European pharmaceutical industry also contributed importantly to improved patient care through the development of novel drugs, including β-blockers, diuretics, amiodarone, and calcium channel antagonists. Today European scientists and clinicians lead the way in the clinical application of stem cells for the treatment of cardiac disease. Initially, scientific findings were published in books, later in national journals—up until recently a European journal in this discipline did not exist. Only with the foundation of the European Society of … *Corresponding author. Tel: +41 44 255 21 21, Fax: +41 44 255 42 51, Email: cardiotfl{at}gmx.ch