The European Heart Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology is now in its second year on the market. The Editorial Board and the Editors are very pleased to see the growing number of high quality submissions to the journal. We now have to reject >70% of the submissions, which is nice from an editorial point of view, but sad, since the Editorial Board needs to reject papers of a good quality already in this early phase. We now receive letters from authors who disagree with our negative decisions. The journal wants a lively and engaged discussion about its content so I hope this argument is a good sign (even though it is difficult to take such decisions).
In this issue of the journal, Serebruany and co-workers report data from a study of clinical utilization of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in patients with renal impairment following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The authors report that renal impairment was strongly associated with a gradual decline of residual platelet reactivity following DAPT, and elevated MACE (major adverse cardiovascular events) risks. The authors point out that these observations have to be confirmed in larger studies.
Jukema and a significant number of leading European cardiologists report data from 12 registries, providing data in a systematic manner on outcomes in STEMI (non-ST-segment elevatioin myocardial infarction) patients overall, and seven of these also provided data for P2Y12 receptor inhibitor-based DAPT. Real-world evidence from European contemporary registries showed that death, ischaemic events, and bleeding rates were lower than those reported in phase III studies of P2Y12 inhibitors. Regarding individual P2Y12 inhibitors, patients on prasugrel, and, to a lesser degree, ticagrelor, had fewer ischaemic and bleeding events at all time points compared with clopidogrel-treated patients. These findings are partly related to the fact that the newer agents are used in younger and less ill patients.
Wiebke and co-workers from Frankfurt report the effects of digitalis on mortality in patients with structural heart disease. In a retrospective analysis comprised of 1020 consecutive patients who received an implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and who were followed-up for a median of 37 months, a total of 438 patients were receiving digitalis at the time of ICD implantation and 582 were not. In this ICD patient population, digitalis use at baseline was independently associated with increased mortality even after careful adjustment for possible confounders, and the authors concluded that digitalis should be used with great caution in this population.
In this issue of the journal we also publish four interesting review papers. Dr Soomro and co-workers from Staten Island University Hospital in New York, USA, review the current and future prospects of the D-dimer biomarker. In addition, Dr Brenner and co-workers from the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria, review the role of gliptins as a therapy for diabetes mellitus. Ingrid E. Dumitriu and co-workers from St George's University of London, UK, discuss targeting T cells to treat atherosclerosis in an interesting review. Finally, Dr Zannad and co-workers discuss risk assessment of new drugs for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.
The editors of EHJCVP sincerely hope that readers will find the content of this issue very interesting.
Author notes
The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Editors of the European Heart Journal or of the European Society of Cardiology.
