Working Group on Adult Congenital Heart Disease
Personalising Care in ACHD: A Lifecycle Perspective
"Excellent session reinforcing the need for patient education, engagement and empowerment and doing so in a timely fashion. We must do a better job on this low cost intervention, employ technology to effect it and, thus improve further the outlook of our patients and help smoothen their life."
Professor Michael Gatzoulis, Past-Chairperson
Guidelines in Practice: a challenging case of endocarditis
"The session was very educative for infective endocarditis in general, starting with an interesting adult congenital heart disease infective endocarditis case presented by Dr. Magalie Ladouceur, followed by the very detailed presentation on what do most recent guidelines say regarding infective endocarditis in this challenging group of patients with congenital heart disease presented by Dr. Paola Anna Erba. Finally, there was a panel discussion regarding approach to diagnostics, with diagnostic challenges and how to best overcome it."
Doctor Margarita Brida, Chairperson
The European Heart Journal year in Adult Congenital Heart Disease
"Dr. Margarita Brida presented the most recently published work in the European Heart Journal regarding ACHD. She highlighted the main authors and co-authors in the last year with their important clinical contribution in the better prediction of sudden cardiac death/malignant arrhythmias, interventional novelties, and heart failure in patients with congenital heart disease. Thanks to this interesting session we have been able to highlight the quality of publications in the field of congenital heart diseases, establishing the path to follow for the development of research and dissemination of knowledge in this evergrowing population."
Doctor Raquel Prieto Arévalo, Nucleus member
Working Group on Aorta & Peripheral Vascular Diseases
2024 ESC Guidelines for the Management of Peripheral Arterial and Aortic Diseases: Ask the Guidelines Task Force
"If I had to select one, I would choose the Meet the Task Force session of the PAAD guidelines because there, in a very open and interactive way with the audience, it was possible to communicate with the members of the TF who worked on these guidelines. What particularly struck me there was the clear message from the patient representative who stressed the importance of clear communication to patients. Terms that are obvious to us such as ‘aneurysm’ and ‘dissection’ are difficult concepts to an average patient and every conversation should start with explaining these terms. It is in everyone's interest to inform/be informed - an essential element in correct treatment/proper care."
Professor Julie De Backer, Nucleus member
Invasive treatment of peripheral arterial disease: these boots are made for walking
"The aim of this session was to critically discuss revascularisation strategies for patients with peripheral arterial disease and chronic limb-threatening ischaemia. At first sight, results of recent randomised controlled trials comparing endovascular with surgical revascularisation for chronic limb-threatening ischaemia are conflicting (BEST-CLI and BASIL-2). Presenters and discussants of this session concluded that a high percentage proportion of patients with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia might not qualify for both revascularisation options to the same extent. Therefore, an individualised patient-centred approach is required, which takes the individual arterial morphology, the availability of a good autologous vein, and the patients' surgical risk into account. A vascular team is required for the decision making on the optimal revascularisation strategy. This conclusion is also reflected by the 2024 ESC Guidelines for the Management of Peripheral Arterial and Aortic Diseases."
Associate Professor Oliver Schlager, Past-Chairperson
Working Group on Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology
Liver and lipids in cardiometabolic syndrome
"This session focused on understanding the multifaceted aspects of cardiometabolic syndrome including its relationship with obesity, steatotic liver disease, mixed dyslipidaemia, and isolated hypertriglyceridemia. An update on treatment strategies including novel specific anti-obesity and lipid-lowering treatments were discussed. The session included two talks with a more translational perspective and two clinical practice-oriented, which is a very good way to integrate new knowledge into current practice."
Professor Elena Osto, Chairperson
Smaller trials, trial updates, and other studies on inflammation and immunity in cardiovascular disease
"In this session with awesome speakers, truly-groundbreaking trials were presented. Even if not huge numbers of patients were included in these trials, the novelty was refreshing and inspiring for real novel approaches against various cardiovascular diseases, with a translational rationale."
Professor Isabel Goncalves, Chairperson-elect
The molecular hallmarks of cardiovascular health
"Excellent speakers from different career stages covering aspects of cellular and systemic metabolism and how to potentially harness this for improving cardiovascular health. The wide range of topics included effects of exercise, endothelial cell metabolism, ageing of the heart and intervention and quality checks of organelles."
Associate Professor Holger Winkels, Nucleus member
Working Group on Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology
Personalised treatment of cardiac arrhythmias: novel insights from the bench
"This session included 3 presentations that highlighted the state-of-the-art in genetics, cellular models and digital twins for personalisation of cardiac arrhythmia management. The presentations addressed, among other things, how to obtain high-quality patient-specific atrial cardiomyocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells, novel suppression-replacement gene-therapy strategies for long-QT syndrome, and simulation-guided ablation of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. Subsequently, there was a lively discussion with the audience about various aspects, including the clinical application of these basic and translational findings and the question how much personalisation is possible and how much is needed."
Professor Jordi Heijman, Past-chairperson
Novel players in atrial fibrillation: looking outside the box
"In an insightful session at the ESC Congress, experts explored novel mechanisms underlying atrial fibrillation, focusing on the less explored potential role of mitochondria and how epicardial adipose tissue might affect atrial function in obesity (as has been shown in heart failure). Barbara Casadei delivered a standout talk on the role of inflammation and reactive oxygen species in atrial fibrillation. She highlighted increased oxidative stress as a possible driver the initiation and progression of atrial fibrillation. The session underscored the importance of increasing research into atrial fibrillation to increase the knowledge of abnormal pathways in order to find potential new targets and therapies in the management of atrial fibrillation."
Professor Cristina E Molina, Communication coordinator
Novel mechanisms in arrhythmogenic cardiac diseases
"This session included 5 presentations that were selected from submitted abstracts and explored several key areas of cutting-edge research and was chaired by Dr Kat Dibb (Manchester, UK) and Constanze Schmidt (Heidelberg, Germany) Central topics included the genetic and molecular underpinnings of arrhythmias and their progression, as well as emerging therapeutic strategies. One major focus was on understanding how alterations in various proteins, for example in dystrophin and phospholamban, can lead to alterations in cardiac electrophysiology and how this could be treated in animal models. The session elegantly highlighted the role of ion channelopathies and calcium-handling abnormalities in triggering arrhythmias and discussed the efforts to refine risk stratification and improve personalized treatment approaches for patients with arrhythmogenic cardiac conditions.."
Doctor Daniel Johnson, Chairperson
Working Group on Cardiovascular Regenerative and Reparative Medicine
Novel approaches in cardiac regeneration
"The Advances in Science session entitled “Novel approaches in cardiac regeneration” offered to the audience the state-of-the-art on two promising cellular targets for myocardial regeneration and repair in heart failure patients. In an outstanding keynote lecture, Mauro Giacca clearly stated that the future of cardiac repair is based on cell-free products, aiming at transdifferentiating fibroblasts to cardiomyocytes or at stimulating endogenous cardiomyocyte proliferation, by means of cell cycle regulators, non-coding RNAs or by modifying transduction pathways. Two good examples of these new approaches were then presented: the possibility of modulating the Yap activity in murine neonatal hearts by influencing Gas6 expression and therefore enhancing cardiomyocyte proliferation, and the role of miRNA-515 and miRNA-519e for this same purpose after inducing cell-cycle re-entry in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes."
Doctor Ricardo Sanz Ruiz, Chairperson
Gene editing and gene therapies to cure cardiovascular diseases
"The Symposium entitled “Gene editing and gene therapies to cure cardiovascular diseases” presented to the audience the state-of-the-art and perspectives of new approaches of gene therapy and gene editing to cure cardiovascular diseases. In the opening speech, Eva Van Rooij illustrated the incoming technologies based on viral-based gene editing to correct single gene defects of inherited cardiomyopathies, such as arrhytmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, followed along the same line by Sivia Priori, who presented a novel approach to treat by gene therapy an ultrarare syndrome carrying inherited channelopathies. Simon Lebeck has widened thereafter this landscape with a very novel concept to use gene editing as therapy for common cardiovascular disorders by means of CRISPR-Cas9 base editing of pathogenic Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIδ, that was shown to recover cardiac function, improve exercise performance, and protect from myocardial fibrosis. Finally, Mauro Giacca has comprehensively addressed opportunities and limitations of currents approaches, opening to interesting future perspectives for a faster adoption of gene therapies in the clinical setting."
Professor Giulio Pompilio , Past-chairperson
Emerging cardiovascular drugs: watch this space
"The session opens with a focus on myogenic drugs, specifically omecamtiv mecarbil and mavacamten, which target sarcomeric proteins to treat heart failure and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, respectively. It then explores anti-arrhythmic drug development, stressing the importance of understanding arrhythmia mechanisms, supported by computational modeling, particularly digital twinning. Attention shifts to RNA-based therapeutics for heart failure, especially a promising RNA-based compound targeting microRNA-132, which is advancing through preclinical and clinical stages. The session wraps up with an update on clinical trials for biologics targeting dyslipidemia, such as monoclonal antibodies, RNA interference drugs, and antisense oligonucleotides aimed at key molecules like PCSK9, ANGPTL3, APOC3, and lipoprotein(a), crucial for cholesterol and triglyceride management."
Doctor Marie-Noelle Giraud, Communication coordinator 2022-2024
Working Group on Cardiovascular Surgery
"Despite optimal medical therapy, functional MR remains a significant problem in many patients with heart failure and is associated with worse prognosis and TEER become a valid option for this pathology. Two trial has been conducted with very different results (COAPT trial and Mitra-FR). On this background, the RESHAPE-HF2 trial was designed to assess the benefit of TEER in patients with heart failure and moderate to severe functional MR “reshaping” the two trial patients. The main results have been that TEER is beneficial in terms of reducing hospitalizations for heart failure and the composite of heart failure hospitalization and all-cause death as well as improving patient symptoms in patients with heart failure and grade 3+ or 4+ functional MR. Also, COAPT seems the trial to be more close to this final results rather that Mitral FR."
Doctor Edoardo Zancanaro, Nucleus member
MATTERHORN - Transcatheter Repair versus Mitral-Valve Surgery for Secondary Mitral Regurgitation
"In this noninferiority trial, patients with heart failure and secondary mitral were randomly assigned, to undergo either transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) (intervention group) or surgical mitral-valve repair or replacement (surgery group). The primary efficacy end point was composite of death, hospitalization for heart failure, mitral-valve reintervention, implantation of an assist device, or stroke within 1 year after the procedure. TEER was noninferior to mitral-valve surgery with respect to a composite endpoint at 1 year."
Doctor Edoardo Zancanaro, Nucleus member
- "The TRI.Fr trial is multicenter, randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER) combined with Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy (GDMT) versus GDMT alone in patients with severe symptomatic secondary tricuspid regurgitation (STR). Principal finding has been:
Clinical score: 74.1% of patients in the TEER group showed improvement compared to 40.6% in the GDMT group. The effect estimate was 0.67 (95% CI: 0.61-0.72; P < .0001), indicating a significant improvement with TEER.
-TR reduction: At 12 months, 93.2% of patients in the TEER group achieved a TR grade reduction to less than 4+, compared to only 46.5% in the GDMT group. The effect estimate for this was 0.73 (95% CI: 0.68-0.78; P < .0001).
This trial confirmed the good outcomes of TEER in case of STR compared to GMTR alone."
Doctor Edoardo Zancanaro, Nucleus member
Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart
Therapeutic modulation of the immune system in CVD
"Slava Epelman's group from Toronto, CA, has shown that stem cell-derived cardio-immune microtissues can be generated from macrophages, cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts and that the macrophages have several beneficial properties on cardiomyocyte function; most importantly, the iPSC macrophages can eliminate stressed iPSC-CM, thereby significantly improving the contractile machinery of cardiomyocytes (Hamidzada et al., 2024, Nat Cardiovasc Res; PMID 39086373)."
Professor Katrin Streckfuss-Boemeke, Nucleus member
"Xander Wehrens’ group from Texas, US, investigated the reasons for postoperative atrial fibrillation (poAF) in around one-third of patients a few days after heart surgery and wanted to know to what extent perioperative systemic inflammation, often correlating, plays a role. What is the underlying mechanism, and which cell types are responsible? He demonstrated that infiltrating atrial macrophages are fundamentally required for poAF. IL-6 was found to be a critical pathway upregulated in poAF, leading to downstream ryanodine receptor-2 dysfunction and atrial arrhythmogenesis. Therefore, targeting the IL-6 axis is a possibility for the prevention and treatment of poAF."
Professor Katrin Streckfuss-Boemeke, Nucleus member
Working Group on Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation
"This session aimed to foster discussions and share research insights on reducing health disparities and advancing health equity on both local and international levels. It emphasized the importance of intersectionality in public health solutions, integrating policy and clinical practice to advocate for proper education and reforms. The goal is to shape effective policies that improve healthcare outcomes for minority and migrant populations."
Doctor Edina Cenko, Chairperson
Vascular and immune control of organ function
"This session explored the role of vasculature and immunity in controlling cardiac function, focusing on lymphatic vessels' response to myocardial infarction (MI) and their role in immune cell regulation. It highlighted the need to identify genes expressed during heart development to improve myocardial repair in adults. The potential to reactivate developmental gene expression after MI was discussed as a strategy for heart regeneration. The importance of cardiac pericytes in supporting angiogenesis and their link to heart failure was also emphasized."
Doctor Teresa Padro, Past-chairperson
Revolutionary new cardiovascular disease therapies: future now
"This session aimed to address the future avenues of managing cardiovascular diseases,
through protein, DNA, and RNA modification. Specifically, the speakers stressed the importance of
genetic therapies in the treatment of cardiomyopathies, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension, among
others. Finally, the potential challenges and gaps in evidence were also presented, indicating that further
research is still required in the field in order to change clinical practice."
Professor Dimitris Tousoulis, Past-chairperson 2022-2024
Working Group on e-Cardiology
Integration of artificial intelligence in electrocardiography: state of the art.
"This session on AI integration in electrocardiography underscored the growing importance of AI in detecting and predicting cardiovascular conditions. AI models have shown the ability to tackle challenging tasks, such as outperforming traditional methods and accurately identifying arrhythmias and structural lesions from ECGs. As healthcare professionals, it's essential to understand and integrate these tools into practice, and sessions like this really help in that direction."
Doctor Panteleimon Pantelidis, Nucleus member
Revolutionising cardiac diagnosis: exploring deep learning in electrocardiography and beyond.
"This session focused on novel methods for screening and risk stratification based on ECG analysis using artificial intelligence. While novel technologies are transforming the ECG into ubiquitous tests, advancement in neural networks are opening new possibilities for radically improving preventative strategy in cardiology."
Doctor Michele Orini, Nucleus member
Spotlight on innovation: top publications in the European Heart Journal - Digital Health 2023-2024
"What I liked about this session is the showcase of the best studies published at the European heart journal digital health focused on translating technical and engineering developments into the clinical needs."
Doctor Julia Ramirez, Nucleus member
Working Group on Myocardial Function
New treatment targets for personalised therapy in genetic cardiomyopathies
"This session highlighted exciting, recent developments in the treatment of the more common cardiomyopathies, such as hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy, including inherited forms of these diseases. An expert line of speakers covered the following topics myosin activators, myosin inhibitors, desmosomal adhesion and targeting titin. The session was well attended and sparked interesting discussions about the clinical translation of drugs, such as myosin inhibitors, myosin activators, and titin-targeting pharmaceuticals."
Professor Wolfgang Linke, Chairperson
Metabolic rewiring of the heart
"The session brought together an outstanding group of speakers who delved into emerging metabolic targets for modulating cardiovascular disease. Key topics included the roles of IGFBP7, soluble epoxide hydrolase, and iron levels in cardiac health. The speakers collectively highlighted the critical importance of metabolism in the pathophysiology of various cardiac disorders, with a particular emphasis on heart failure. They also discussed the translational potential of research bridging the gap from the lab to clinical application. The session concluded with a lively discussion."
Doctor Mahmoud Abdellatif, Treasurer
Mechanisms of ageing in cardiovascular disease
"This session included renowned experts who discussed relevant aspects and novel findings related to cardiovascular aging. Topics discussed included epigenetic and metabolic alterations, clonal haematopoiesis of indetermined potential (CHIP), age-associated somatic mutations, autophagy and mechanisms of vascular ageing, focusing on accelerated vascular aging scenarios. An interactive discussion followed the excellent presentations of the speakers."
Associate Professor Arantxa Gonzalez Miqueo, Communication coordinator
Working Group on Pulmonary Circulation & Right Ventricular Function
"The goal of this session was to discuss the current developments in acute pulmonary embolism with experts and principal investigators of major randomised studies. The focus was on intermediate-high risk pulmonary embolism. In particular, the discussion centred on identifying factors that qualify for a pulmonary embolism intervention using catheter-based thrombolysis or percutaneous thrombectomy. Results from the Hi-Peitho, PEERLESS II, and Storm-PE studies are awaited, with expectations set for 2026/27."
Doctor Lukas Hobohm, Nucleus member
Shaping the future management of pulmonary hypertension
"Interesting session focused on new strategies for future research in pulmonary hypertension. Among them, the importance of incorporating patients from the beginning in the design of clinical trials and in the drafting of clinical practice guidelines. New clinical trial designs that include adaptation and enrichment strategies that can make them more efficient and better respond to the needs of patients and regulatory agencies. Omics, and especially genomics and proteomics, which can help to better characterize patients and identify those who may benefit most from a particular treatment. Finally, recent advances in the development of new treatments such as sotatercept and seralutinib were exposed."
Doctor Ana Garcia-Alvarez, Nucleus member
Pulmonary hypertension: from diagnosis to personalised care
"This session focused on epidemiology and phenotyping of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension in the current era. Cardiovascular comorbidities and the impact of obesity were thoroughly discussed. Finally, since treatment of CTEPH is multimodal, a personalised care strategy was addressed."
Professor George Giannakoulas, Past-chairperson
Our mission: To reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.