Table of Contents Volume 1 Number 1

Inaugural Issue of Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications Journal Launches with Special Issue on Heart Failure.

Beijing, October 21, 2015: The new journal Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications (CVIA) has been launched with a Special Issue on Heart Failure. CVIA was founded on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Great Wall-International Congress of Cardiology (GW-ICC) in 2014 by Professor Dayi Hu, president of the GW-ICC and past president of the Chinese Society of Cardiology, who will serve as Founding Editor.

Richard Conti, MD, a past president of the American College of Cardiology and former Editor of Clinical Cardiology, servers as Editor-in-Chief of the new journal, which has published its first issue to coincide with the GW-ICC meeting in October 2015 in Beijing, China.

The GW-ICC is one of the largest congresses in the Asian-Pacific region and is the most comprehensive and influential academic conference on cardiology. Held as a regular annual conference since 1990, GW-ICC has provided a platform for continuing education in cardiovascular disease diagnosis, treatment, and technology training, through events that leverage the expertise of internationally renowned cardiologists and scholars from the United States, Europe and Asia.

The CVIA Special Issue on Heart Failure has been Guest Edited by Juan M. Aranda, Jr. of the University of Florida and brings together contributions from leading cardiologists from the United States, China and Europe.

Featured papers in this issue are:

A Clinician’s Commentary on Heart Failure Treatment in the Future  by C. Richard Conti.  This paper considers the results of the latest heart failure trial entitled ‘Efficacy and Safety of LCZ696 Compared to Enalapril on Morbidity and Mortality of Patients with Chronic Heart Failure.’ The drug LCZ696 has now been approved by the FDA and will be manufactured by Novartis as Entresto.

Strategies to Reduce Heart Failure Hospitalizations and Readmission: How Low Can We Go?  by Juan M. Aranda, Jr. This paper examines the strategies available to reduce heart failure readmission levels. It is estimated that more than one million heart failure hospitalizations occur each year and heart failure readmission rates continue to be about 25%. Strategies to reduce heart failure readmission are key to reducing hospitalization rates. This paper considers strategies available at three different stages of the treatment process: during hospitalization, before discharge and post-discharge. The interventions conducted by a multidisciplinary team adopting these strategies have great potential to reduce heart failure hospitalization rates.

Other papers in this issue are:

Editorial by the Founding Editor by Dayi Hu. This editorial notes the considerable rise in China-based cardiology papers in recent years, with China now the second largest source of cardiology papers in world research rankings. As such, it is now an opportune time to launch a new China-based cardiology journal to publish the best cardiology papers, with a wide range of contributors across China, the United States and Europe.

Congestive Heart Failure Clinics: How to Make Them Work in a Community-Based Hospital System  by Joshua Larned, Mohamad Kabach, Leonardo Tamariz, and Kristine Raimondo. This paper concludes that Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Clinics in community hospitals that use a rapid and frequent follow-up with CHF-trained teams effectively reduce hospitalization rates up to 1 year.

Heart Failure Issues and Management: A European Perspective by Alberto Dominguez-Rodriguez, Julia Gonzalez-Gonzalez, Carima Belleyo-Belkasem and Pedro Abreu-Gonzalez. This review provides a European perspective on management of heart failure.

Unusual Cardiomyopathies: Some May Be More Usual Than Previously Thought and Simply Underdiagnosed by  Frank W Smart. This paper studies certain cardiomyopathies that have previously been regarded as very rare. These are being recognized with increasing frequency, because of improved imaging techniques and an increased understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms that result in these diseases.

Cardiac Sarcoidosis: Sorting Fact from Fiction in This Rare Cardiomyopathy by Indranee Rajapreyar and Elizabeth Langlois. This review details the current understanding of cardiac sarcoidosis and highlights diagnostic strategies and treatment with the aim of guiding the clinician to early identification of patients and implementation of appropriate management in this rare disease entity.

Epidemiological Study of Heart Failure in China by Yang Guo, Dong Zhao and Jing Liu:  This review highlights important epidemiological studies of heart failure in China.

Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring for Heart Failure: A New Era of Heart Failure Management by Gabriel A. Hernandez, Viviana Navas and Sandra Chaparro.  This paper describes advances in implantable wireless technology that now allow frequent and direct measurement of intracardiac filling pressures, which can be monitored by health care providers to help tailor therapy to reduce filling pressures and hospital readmission rates.

The Evaluation of the Heart Failure Patient by Echocardiography: Time to go beyond the Ejection Fraction by Jacqueline Dawson Dowe, Juan Vilaro, Karen Hamilton, Anita Szady and Juan M. Aranda, Jr. This article reviews the role of the echocardiogram in the evaluation of the heart failure patient, without focusing on the left ventricle.

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and the Failing Ventricle: Getting It Right by Stacy A Mandras, Sylvia Oleck and Hector O. Ventura.  This paper concludes that the discovery of new prognostic indicators, use of hybrid imaging for early detection of Right Ventricular Failure (RVF), and strategies to prevent the development of RVF will be important if outcomes in this patient population are to improve.

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in 2015: Lessons Learned by Siva Ketha and Fred M. Kusumoto. This paper reviews the pathobiology of cardiac dyssynchrony, the rationale for the use of CRT, the history and the state of the art of CRT, and guidelines and recommendations for CRT, while also focusing on the areas of controversy and potential future applications.

Continuous Flow Left Ventricular Assist Device Therapy: A Focused Review on Optimal Patient Selection and Long-Term Follow-up Using Echocardiography by Juan R. Vilaro, Anita Szady, Mustafa M. Ahmed, Jacqueline Dawson  and Juan M. Aranda Jr.  This paper provides a focused clinical review on the use of echocardiography in two main aspects of the evaluation of patients who are being considered for or are mechanically supported by Continuous Flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices (CF-LVADs): (a) optimal patient selection for CF-LVAD support and (b) follow-up assessment of optimal pump function.

Mechanical Circulatory Support for the Failing Heart: Which Device to Choose by Mustafa Ahmed and Rene Alvarez, Jr. This article reviews the literature and provides an algorithm for the treatment of cardiogenic shock.