‘Longitudinal’ topics in Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy (CDT)

Traditional ‘Focus Issues’ of print journals simultaneously publish several manuscripts centered on a common topic, with the goal to provide a comprehensive, timely update. In contrast to this traditional approach, publishing a series of articles focused on specific topics over extended periods of time (multiple consecutive issues) has potential advantages. In contrast to a static ‘focus issue’, these ‘longitudinal’ topics can evolve into a dynamic discussion about important established and emerging aspects of cardiovascular medicine. This is possible because of digital, on-line versions of journals, where manuscripts can easily be collected and re-arranged according to specific topics.

This issue of the journal has a major focus of non-invasive cardiovascular imaging of coronary artery disease. Most of these manuscripts have been invited by our guest editor Dr. Isma’eel from the American University (AUB) in Beirut, Lebanon, and cover a wide range of important topics, including: - epicardial and thoracic fat (1), - coronary artery calcium scoring (2), - cardiac CT FFR and myocardial perfusion (3), - post myocardial infarction cardiac MRI imaging of the left ventricle (4), and - imaging findings in heart failure with normal coronaries (5).

Previous issues have already discussed topics related to non-invasive and invasive coronary imaging, including: - definitions for quantifying in-stent neointimal tissue with intracoronary ultrasound and optical coherence tomography (6), - coronary CT angiography with prospective ECG-triggering (7), - the coronary slow flow phenomenon (8), and - QCA, IVUS and OCT in interventional cardiology (9).

Another emerging focus is genomic and proteonomic research. In this issue, an article by Dr. Wang, entitled “Impact of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology on cardiovascular disease research” (10) describes current trends in genomic research. In the last issue of the journal, an article described results from the ‘Athero-Express Study’, a large vascular biobank, prospectively examining the impact of local atherosclerotic plaque (histology, RNA, protein level) on future local and systemic vascular outcome (11).

We are also continuing to publish perspectives focused on healthcare in various regions and socio-economic setting around the world. In this issue an article describes “African experiences of humanitarian cardiovascular medicine: the Cardiac Centre of St. Elizabeth Catholic General Hospital, Shisong” in Cameroon (12). The article has been collected by our Guest Editor Dr. Ana Mocumbi, who in the last issue introduced the topic (13).

We are also continuing our focus on ‘art-in-medicine’. In this issue the cover image is part of a submission from Peter Meyer, a photographer living on Frazer Island of Australia (14). His nature photography provides an insight into the fragile nature but also the resilience of the local environment. This photographic documentation of nature has a strong artistic component. A second submission, describes the work of the European artist Kaethe Kollwitz (15), whose live spanned the first and second world war, and highlights the dependence of art and social surroundings.

The articles in the print version are available as open-access on our website, many with partial translation into Chinese/Mandarin. In addition, our website/digital issue maintains additional information, including an increasing number of ‘Article Snapshots’. These are summaries of key recent papers, posted in order to encourage on-line discussions, both on our web-site but also by referencing to other international websites. A growing number of our manuscripts are displayed on www.dxy.cn and on MDLinx (http://www.amepc.org/cdt#articles-on-mdlinx). Based on an increasing number of submissions and direct feedback during the ACC meeting (http://www.amepc.org/cdt/announcement/view/23), we are confident that our journal addresses the need of our readers and hope that both print and digital version of the journal will contribute to the discussion about important issue related to cardiovascular care worldwide.

Acknowledgements

Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

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2. Youssef G, Budoff MJ. Coronary artery calcium scoring, what is answered and what questions remain. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther 2012;2:94-105.
3. Yoon YE, Koo BK. Non-invasive functional assessment using computed tomography: When will they be ready for clinical use? Cardiovasc Diagn Ther 2012;2:106-112.
4. Masci PG, Bogaert J. Post myocardial infarction of the left ventricle: The course ahead seen by cardiac MRI. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther 2012;2:113-127.
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