Continuing resolutions and new directions

Cardiology Review

February is oftentimes the month that New Year’s resolutions begin to slip away, but here at , our resolutions are either continuing or just beginning to take hold. For example, this issue once again contains Maintenance of Certification questions for physicians preparing for the exam in Cardiovascular Disease, a feature we first resolved to begin at the start of 2006. This will continue to appear in the even months throughout 2007, and those issues will now also feature another new section we’ve been planning—regular coverage of cardiac imaging. These imaging case studies will cover common (and even not so common) medical conditions in a concise style, drawing on electrocardiograms, chest x-rays, magnetic resonance images, computed tomography, and echocardiography to present an illustrated clinical discussion. The inaugural case is by our consultant board member Dr Joseph Dell’Orfano, and discusses cardiac resynchronization. (If you’d like to speak with section editor Dr Tasneem Z. Naqvi about contributing a case, please contact

) Of course, the publication will also continue to feature the articles, case reports, and commentaries that have been its staple. This month, for example, we have a study from Dr Brian Henderson and associates from the United Kingdom, who examined the associations between a potential biomarker of cardiovascular disease (heat shock protein 60) and diabetes. They enrolled 855 patients with diabetes and found higher levels of this circulating mitochondrial stress protein in those patients with diabetes with overt evidence of cardiovascular disease. Dr Naqvi, one of our new editorial consultants, raises some caveats to the authors’ conclusions, including the nonspecificity of this biomarker. In the arrhythmia section, a report by Drs Elizabeth J. Masterson and Alan H. Kadish addresses the timing of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathies. In their study of 458 patients, the authors found that even patients with a very recent diagnosis of nonischemic cardiomyopathy can benefit from ICD placement, and this treatment should be undertaken once reversible causes of left ventricular dysfunction have been excluded. The very busy Dr Dell’Orfano once again contributes his thoughts on this approach in a commentary. Our final article is in the hypertension section. Dr Susan G. Lakoski and colleagues analyzed the value of C-reactive protein in predicting the future risk of developing hypertension in a young adult cohort. As Dr Samuel Mann notes in his commentary, proving such a relationship would allow for earlier and more aggressive prevention and treatment of hypertension. Lastly, and in keeping with another of our resolutions, we’d like to welcome another new member to our editorial and consultant board—Kathleen Wyne. I also want to offer a special word of thanks to Bill Little, whose role at the American Board of Internal Medicine has forced him to leave the board—at least for the present.

editor@cardiology-review.com