15^th Global Cardiology Summit

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a term used for the conditions or class of diseases which involve heart or blood vessels. It is a leading cause of death globally. It's usually associated with a build-up of fatty deposits inside the arteries and an increased risk of blood clots. It can also damage the organs such as the brain, heart, kidneys and eyes. The exact cause of CVD isn't clear, but there are lots of things that can increase risk of getting CVD. The main risk factors for CVD are high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes, inactivity, being overweight or obese, family history of CVD, ethnic background, age, gender, diet, alcohol etc. According to World Health Organization, 17.9 million people die each year from CVDs, an estimated 31% of all deaths worldwide. To prevent the risk of CVD it is very important to follow the healthy lifestyle.

Infections to heart have been recognized as significant causes of heart diseases. Various microbes such as bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses and may act as agents to cause infection to heart. Any component of the heart structure i.e. pericardium, myocardium, endocardium, valves, autonomic nervous system, and some evidence of coronary arteries can be affected by infectious agents. Imaging Techniques plays an important role in diagnostic evaluation and management of cardiac infections. The likeliness for cardiac infectious complications may increase in the near future, as more mechanical devices are implanted in the growing ageing population.

Interventional cardiology deals with the treatment of structural heart diseases by using a small flexible tube called catheter. The harmed or debilated vessels, narrowed arteries or other affected parts of the heart structure are corrected by catheter. The heart can be subjected to many procedures through catheterization. Cardiac catheterization includes inserting catheter through small holes in the skin, then threading them through blood vessels to remove any blockages in a vessel. The advantage of the interventional cardiology or radiology is that it avoids the scars and pain, and long post-operative recovery.

Cardiovascular surgeries involve the operations on the heart and blood vessels to repair damage caused by diseases or disorders of the cardiovascular system.  If the cardiologist decides that there is a necessity of the surgery, then the patient need to be consulted with the cardiovascular surgeon. These surgeries are generally performed on the heart muscle, valves, arteries and veins, or other parts of the heart. It is generally used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease to correct congenital heart disease or to treat valvular heart disease.

Cardiovascular Pharmacology deals with the study of the effect of drugs upon the heart or the circulatory system. Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of hospitalizations and death in the whole world. Developing new therapeutic agents for cardiovascular diseases has always been the priority for the pharmaceutical industry because of the huge potential market for these drugs. Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics will focus primarily on drugs used in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, both current drug classes and those in development. It mainly contributes to the safety profile of potential new drugs and provides pharmacological data that can be used for optimization of further compounds and the ultimate selection of compounds suitable for clinical development.

Neurocardiology refers to the pathophysiological interactions of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. The specialty that deals with the brain-heart connection is known as Neurocardiology.  A great deal of research has been going on to define the neuroanatomical and functional organization of the autonomic nervous system which controls cardiac function. The neurocardiac axis links the nervous and cardiovascular systems to physiological problems such as: stroke, epilepsy and arrhythmias. The clinical issues in Neurocardiology include the neurogenic stress cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular findings in patients with primary neurological disease, neurologic sequelae of cardiac and thoracic surgery and cardiac interventions and hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.

Cardiac Regeneration in other words Heart Regeneration aims to correct irreversibly damaged heart tissue with cutting-edge science, including cell-free and stem cell therapy. The basic idea of regeneration came into existence due to the innate ability to regenerate in animals. Regenerating an injured heart holds great promise for millions of patients suffering from heart problems. As the human heart has very limited regenerative capacity, this is a challenging task.  Cardiomyocytes in the adult human heart appear to turn over at a very low rate, estimated at 0.5–1% per year. The low rate of cardiomyogenesis is not sufficient to compensate for the enormous loss of cells after injury such as myocardial infarction. Various strategies aiming to improve heart function have been developed. Various strategies for engineering the reparative tools have been developed to restore the damaged heart tissue and function using body's natural ability to regenerate itself. The cardiac specialists are finding regenerative solutions that restore, renew and recycle patients' own reparative capacity.  The innovations in the field of stem cell, reprogramming technologies, understanding of the cardiomyocyte genetic program and key extrinsic signals helped to undertake further study on heart regeneration. Strategies to enhance heart regeneration have potential to counteract the high morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease.

Cardio-oncology is a term to describe the efforts to prevent or treat patients with cancer who face heart problems due to cancer treatments. Cardio-oncology involves oncologists, cardiologists and researchers work together. New therapies are helping the patients to live longer, but that means they also need ongoing cancer treatments that may damage their hearts. Many of the survivors are at risk for heart disease and heart problems and now will live long enough after their cancer treatments to develop heart disease. In addition to it, some medications for cancer treatment contribute for the damage of heart. The field of cardio-oncology is growing at a faster rate because the survivors after cancer therapies are more prone to develop cardiovascular disease. The increase in carcinogenesis in the world has led to the emergence of numerous chemotherapeutic agents which are under preclinical or clinical studies. The cardiotoxic effects of chemotherapy can be decreased by the concurrent use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers or beta-blockers. The use of diagnostic imaging, noninvasive stress testing, serum biomarkers, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and ambulatory cardiac telemetry can help to identify cardiotoxicities and lead to the development of preventative strategies.

Pediatric cardiology deals with diseases of the heart in the growing and developing individual. It focuses on the therapeutic conclusion and treatment of preventing both congenital and acquired heart disease in children. Evaluation and treatment may begin with the fetus since heart problems can be detected before birth through the current technological advancements. Knowledge of the symptoms and signs of heart disease and skill in distinguishing the abnormal from the normal physical exam is crucial for the general pediatrician and it still remains the primary screening tool for all age children. A pediatric cardiologist evaluates and cares for fetuses, neonates, infants, children, adolescents, young adults, and adults. He is trained to perform and interpret procedures such as electrocardiograms, echocardiograms and exercise tests. In cases of more significant heart disease, he may also perform a cardiac catheterization to diagnose or treat the child's heart problem. When there is a necessity of hospitalization, the pediatric cardiologist and pediatric cardiac surgeon work together in planning cardiac surgery.

Geriatric cardiology or cardiogeriatrics deals with the cardiovascular diagnosis and management of heart disease in the elderly population. As the population gets older, the risk to develop cardiovascular disease increases and more prone to suffer their consequences. CVD is usually more hazardous in older patients. It often erupts with multiple simultaneous CVD processes and in combination with non-cardiac pathologies. Such combination of multi system diseases are more liable to overwhelm the diminished CV reserve capacity of aging, thus leading to adverse outcomes. The prevalence of diastolic and systolic heart failure, atrial fibrillation, aortic stenosis and electrical conduction defects increases with age, resulting in a significant burden of cardiovascular disease. To fulfill the needs of care for the growing geriatric population, future cardiologists require education specifically directed at appropriate evaluation and risk stratification of elderly patients. Cardiovascular disease at elderly age is superimposed on the cardiovascular changes of aging, most of which underlie many common disorders of aging and limit the physiologic compensatory mechanisms for disease.

Nuclear Cardiology is a non-invasive method for studying cardiovascular diseases using nuclear imaging techniques. These techniques are used to assess myocardial blood flow, evaluate the pumping function of the heart as well as visualize the size and location of a heart attack. Among the techniques of nuclear cardiology, myocardial perfusion imaging (nuclear stress tests) is the most widely used. The test usually involves injecting radioactive dye, then taking two sets of images of your heart — one at rest and another after exertion. The result shows the areas with poor blood flow or damage in the heart. A nuclear stress test is one of several types of stress tests that may be performed alone or in combination. Nuclear medicine imaging provides unique information that often cannot be obtained using other imaging procedures and offers the potential to identify disease in its earliest stages.

With the increase of obesity, diabetes and hypertension among the people in the current days there has been a parallel increase in the incidence and prevalence of cardiometabolic complications. Cardiometabolic complications are multifactorial diseases mainly characterized by insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and central adiposity and a wide spectrum of different factors including changes in living environments, diets, lifestyles, genetic, and epigenetic factors may be involved.  People with Cardiometabolic syndrome are two times more likely to die from coronary heart disease and three times more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than those who do not have the syndrome. Now it is known that central adiposity is a major contributor to increased cardiometabolic risk. Around 25% of the world’s adult population are suffering from this syndrome. The lifestyle changes and new drugs will have a significant role in reducing the multiple cardiometabolic risk factors. The regular checkup of Blood pressure, Blood Cholesterol, Waist Circumference and Blood Sugar will keep the individual to have a track on the risk of cardiometabolic disease.

Cardiovascular devices are used to diagnose and treat heart disease and related health problems. The major categories of cardiovascular devices are: Cardiac rhythm management devices, interventional cardiac devices and cardiac prosthetic devices. Now a day’s lithium-iodide systems form the basic power supply of modern implantable devices. These have a significant advancement both in terms of longevity and convenience. The Implantable Loop Recorders small wireless electronic devices that can be set to automatically to detect an abnormal rhythm without using the activator and it can be implanted subcutaneously close to the heart in a minor surgical procedure. The life of battery lasts for two years and the devices can continuously monitor the electrical activity of the heart, store rhythm disturbances within set parameters and can be triggered by patients to store events. An Implantable Loop Recorders-guided strategy was shown to be safe and efficacious in directing therapy in patients with unexplained syncope.

Cardiac nursing refers to the process of taking care of the patients suffering from cardiovascular system. It involves advanced cardiovascular care for patients. It includes the surgical tests, stress tests, cardiac monitoring and heath assessments. A cardiac nurse or cardiac care nurse is an expertise who cares specifically for patients with heart issues. They will treat patients who are experiencing different sorts of heart problems under the direction of cardiologists. Cardiac nurses work in many different environments, including coronary care units (CCU), intensive care units (ICU), cardiac catheterization, cardiovascular intensive care units (CVICU), operating theatres, cardiac rehabilitation centers, clinical research, cardiac surgery wards and cardiac medical wards.

Digital Health is the use of information and communication technologies to treat patients, conduct research, educate healthcare specialists, track diseases and monitor the public health. From big data and electronic health records to wearable devices and mobile apps, digital health is transforming healthcare.  Digital health technologies have flooded the consumer marketplace from past few years. The focus is on wireless mobile health (mHealth) tools, including smartphone applications, wearables and smart devices such as blood pressure cuffs, glucosensors and digital weight scales. Telehealth, artificial intelligence and video visits also fall under the umbrella of digital health. Digital health technologies have the potential to transform health care delivery, but most technology companies are targeting consumer products rather than developing digital tools for clinicians to integrate into clinical care.

Advances in Cardiology presents the current thinking of international experts regarding the underlying mechanisms of cardiovascular risk, pathogenesis and pathophysiology of heart and its related disorders It uncovers the current research and innovative methods that are emerging in the field of cardiology and in its related fields. It also allows the early detection of heart problem and in turn helps to halt or reverse the progress of the disease. It focuses on the research related to heart devices, Regenerative Medicine, development of techniques of Nuclear Cardiology for the detection of heart disease, drug development and evaluation of treatments used in heart disease, identification of novel biological markers to predict the presence of heart disease and many more.

A cardiology case report includes a demographic profile of patient but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence. It highlights on cardiovascular issue and diseases and help in advancement and progression of strategies to eradicate the disorder. These documentations become the basic for further case series, reviews and studies. The medical cases provide valuable experience for clinicians, students and paramedical staff members. Rare medical reports and conditions discovered through the latest methods of examination are energized under this session. The study of diagnostic methods from medical cases and the interpretation of symptoms is significant to train and burgeon the thought processes which are being used in the clinical field.