The 3rd Annual Scientific meeting of the EPCCS was held on September 23-24, 2010 in Lisbon, Portugal
Professor Richard Hobbs, Chairman of the European Primary Care Cardiovascular Society (EPCCS), offered a warm welcome to over 400 delegates from across Europe.
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See here all presentations & key slides of the 2010 EPCCS meeting
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Hypertension and Stroke Masterclass
What’s new in Hypertension?
Hypertension is not a boring subject…high blood pressure remains a common cause of morbidity and mortality across Europe due to stroke, heart failure and renal disease’, said Dr Thierry Christiaens (Gent, Belgium). He went on to highlight recent advances in hypertension research such as self-monitoring, non-drug treatment and randomised controlled trials which had looking at drug combinations and the effect of tighter blood pressure control.
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Hypertension and Stroke Masterclass
Arrhythmias – Which are important and what can you do?
Arrhythmias can be difficult to diagnose in primary care. Dr Frans Rutten (Utrecht, Netherlands) suggested the reasons why GPs find it challenging to manage arrhythmias could be due to the uncertain predictive value of symptoms, the paroxysmal nature of arrhythmias and that an ECG taken at the time of the arrhythmia and accurate interpretation is required for diagnosis.
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Hypertension and Stroke Masterclass
Transient Ischaemic Attacks: How to diagnose and what to do?
Transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is a sudden focal neurological deficit that lasts less than 24 hours. It requires acute assessment and if the symptoms and signs have not fully resolved at the time of consultation, the patient should be treated as if they are having a stroke.
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Hypertension and Stroke Masterclass
Preventing Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation: How to assess patient risk and how to treat?
‘Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a perverse consequence of success’ said Professor Richard Hobbs (Birmingham, UK) in describing how an ageing population and improved survival from coronary heart disease is resulting in an increasingly large cohort of patients with AF. There is a five fold increased risk of stroke for patients with AF and they are also at risk of multiple strokes and more severe strokes. This has major implications for patients, their families and healthcare systems.
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Heart Failure Masterclass
What’s new in diagnosis: Is there a clear diagnostic pathway?
Heart failure can present with non-specific symptoms such as fatigue or reduced exercise tolerance. ‘Patients in primary care are more likely to be elderly with multiple comorbidities and gradual onset of symptoms is more common’, said Dr Frans Rutten (Utrecht, Netherlands). ‘Patients with acute onset breathlessness are more likely to present to the emergency department’.
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Heart Failure Master Class
Co-morbidities in heart failure and improving concordance with treatments
‘One in five patients with COPD has unrecognised heart failure and between one in five and one in ten patients with heart failure has COPD’, said Prof Arno Hoes (Utrecht, Netherlands) in describing the challenge of co-morbidities faced by GPs. The prognosis of patients with both heart failure and COPD is significantly worse than with either disease alone.
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Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Masterclass
Should we treat lifetime risk in CVD prevention?
‘Coronary heart disease, despite a decrease in mortality over recent years, remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality across the world’, said Dr Peter Lansberg (Amsterdam, Netherlands). It is fifty years since the original work in the Framingham cohort which identified risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD).
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Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Master Class
Do Cardiac biomarkers or tests add value to CVD risk prediction?
There are multiple biomarkers available in research settings and clinical practice. Measurement of biomarkers can be important to determine cause, aetiology and prognosis in many diseases. In CVD risk prediction, accurate estimation of risk is essential in order to targeting interventions at those who would most benefit.
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Diabetes Masterclass
What should glycaemic and blood pressure targets be?
‘This week we have seen the death of Rosiglitazone’, said Dr Neil Munro ((Esher, UK) after European regulators recommended withdrawal of the drug due to increased concerns about cardiovascular safety. The management of Type II diabetes remains a challenge for primary care physicians. A range of drugs with different mechanisms of action are available to clinicians but what targets of glycaemic control should we be aiming towards?
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Diabetes Masterclass
Should HDL and TGs be targeted in diabetes?
‘There is a high incidence of dyslipidaemia in the diabetic population’ Dr Peter Lansberg (Amsterdam, Netherlands) reminded delegates. The MR FIT study showed cholesterol levels were directly proportional to CVD mortality in male patients with diabetes. Low levels of HDL and high levels of triglycerides and LDL is a pattern commonly seen in diabetic patients. Lipids levels appear to have an increased effect on CVD mortality in diabetic compared to non-diabetic patients.
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Diabetes Masterclass
What role do newer agents have in diabetes in the community?
Dr Munro followed on from his first talk about glycaemic and blood pressure targets in diabetes by highlighting the risks associated with obesity and diabetes beyond cardiovascular disease.
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Freestanding abstract presentations from EPCCS members
The conference welcomed abstract presentations from EPCCS members for the first time.
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Plenary Lectures
CVD in Europe: How do I assess risk and what’s new?
Mortality from ischaemic heart disease has fallen over the past two decades but remains the leading cause of death across Europe. The risk equations in common use such as Framingham are based on data from the 1980s. Many risk equations can under or over predict the risk of cardiovascular disease in some subgroups.
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Plenary Lectures
Venous Thromboembolism and Pulmonary Embolism: The Forgotten High Risk Disease
Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is a major cause of death which can be forgotten by many clinicians. ‘We are not good at diagnosing VTE before or after death’, said Professor David Fitzmaurice (Birmingham, UK). The risks of VTE are also not well known to patients except in relation to air travel. VTE is the leading cause of cardiovascular mortality after coronary heart disease and stroke.
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Guidelines
Update on the ESC Guidelines: What are the headline recommendations?
Speakers had six minutes each to highlight the key messages in recent ESC guidelines.
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Workshop Sessions
Conference delegates were invited to attend parallel workshop sessions which included:
1. How to read an ECG after a 30 minute workshop.
2. How to assess vascular risk and use CV risk calculators.
3. How to measure ankle-brachial pressure index.
4. Clinical care studies decision analysis.
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Closing session
Professor Arno Hoes thanked delegates for their attendance and enthusiastic participation in the third annual EPCCS Cardiovascular Disease Clinical Master Class. The number of delegates attending the meeting has grown year on year. The quality of the speakers has also been exceptionally high. The next scientific meeting will be held in Berlin, Germany on 1-2 September 2011.
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