INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF CARDIOMYOPATHY AND HEART FAILURE HOLDS FIRST CONGRESSThe International Society of Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure held its first annual congress 10 to 13 March 2007 in Kyoto, Japan. The World Heart Federation was well represented. Among those attending were President Shahryar Sheikh, Scientific Advisory Board Chair Sidney Smith, Secretary Akira Matsumori (who is also President of the International Society of Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure), former Presidents Philip Poole-Wilson, Antoni Bayés de Luna and Mario de Camargo Maranhão, Chief Executive Officer Janet Voûte and World Congress of Cardiology 2008 President Horacio Faella. “As first congresses go, this one was a huge success,” Dr Sheikh said. “The quality of the presentations was exceptionally high. I fully expect the society’s congresses to make major contributions to the field of cardiomyopathy and heart failure for many years to come.” Dr Sheikh continued, “We look forward to engaging the society not just in the scientific level, but also in the level of increasing the health awareness of populations through our World Heart Day (www.worldheartday.com) and Go Red for Women (http://www.worldheart.org/grfw) campaigns.” “We brought together for the first time in one focused congress researchers in cardiomyopathy and in heart failure to really learn from each other and tackle the problem of heart failure from a broader perspective,” Dr Matsumori said. “Some day we’ll look back and see this as a turning point in heart failure research, we believe.” Delegates from 25 countries gathered in the Kyoto International Conference Center for the four days of plenary sessions, scientific sessions, poster exhibitions and various other demonstrations. The number of delegates far exceeded the society’s expectations. Highlights included Dr Sheikh’s opening lecture entitled, “Challenges Ahead,” and Dr Matsumori’s opening lecture entitled, “Cardiomyopathies and Heart Failure: New Insights into its Pathogenesis and Treatment.” Doctors Maranhão, Bayés de Luna and Faella participated in a symposium entitled, “Heart failure: Epidemiology and Prevention,” Dr Poole-Wilson participated in a symposium entitled “Treatment of Heart Failure.” There were 100 poster exhibitions from 25 countries. Half of the posters were from countries other than Japan. Summaries of key presentations, along with slides and references, were expected to be available on the society’s website (www.ischf.org) in mid April 2007. The International Society of Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure launched in 2005 with the active and enthusiastic support of the World Heart Federation, whose board voted to make it an international associate member. Besides Dr Matsumori, the other founders are Peter Liu, Jeffrey Towbin, Bernhard Maisch and William J McKenna, all of whom are current members of the society’s board. It is the first international society to focus on the etiology and pathogenesis of heart disease. Its objective is to develop new prevention strategies and therapies for heart failure based on the etiologies, in part through the promotion of collaborative research. “This is a unique approach to viewing heart failure research and we think that this will fuel new approaches and new collaborations for research that are much needed to really tackle the growing problem of heart failure worldwide,” Dr. Matsumori said. The next annual congress of the International Society of Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure will be held on 12 to 14 June 2008 in Toronto, Canada. Later that week, many of the delegates also attended the 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society, 15 to 17 March, in Kobe, Japan. Among those attending from the World Heart Federation were doctors Sheikh, Smith, Poole-Wilson, Maranhão and Bayés de Luna and Ms Voûte. | |||||||
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