ESC Congress-2014 took place in Barcelona, Spain

Prof Keith Fox, Chair of the Congress Program Committee said: «This has been the strongest scientific program yet and the congress has broken records in attendance and scientific submissions. The quality of the work we received is outstanding and attracted doctors from all over the world. In the digital age, cardiologists want to attend our congress because we have used modern technology to enhance interaction and discussion and to allow participants to get behind the headlines. Delegates will go home not just knowing the headlines, but what is important and will change practice and what to look out for on the horizon».

“The wealth of new information in the scientific program was reflected in the very dense press program this year,” said Kurt Huber, Chair of the ESC Press Committee. “Over 800 journalists registered for ESC Congress 2014. This is an all time record!”“Hot Line press conferences were eagerly anticipated and well attended. We are amazed at the reach of the news coming out of ESC Congress. Barcelona, this week, became a hub for hot topics with repercussions all over the world from India to Chile.”Cardiology has made huge advances with a steady decline of CVD mortality in most of Europe, but there is still a lot to do and we rely on journalists to help us encourage the public to adopt healthy lifestyles,” said Prof. Vardas.

Some of the most popular news stories coming out of ESC Congress this year were:• Batteryless pacemaker. A new batteryless cardiac pacemaker based on an automatic wristwatch and powered by heart motion was presented. The prototype device does not require battery replacement.• Obesity and hypertension in adolescents. Obesity is on the rise among youth. Obese teenagers have a nearly six fold risk of hypertension, according to research in more than 22 000 young people from Germany.• Wine and exercise. Wine only protects against cardiovascular disease (CVD) in people who exercise.• Fruit consumption. Daily fruit consumption cuts the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by up to 40%.• Energy drinks can cause serious heart problems such as sudden or unexplained death, arrhythmia and heart attack.

At ESC General Assembly the ESC Presidency was transferred from Professor Panos Vardas to Professor Fausto Pinto from Portugal. Paying tribute to the outgoing President, Prof. Pinto said that he “had done an outstanding job of keeping the society united and focused on the main objective: reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease.”

Professor Fausto Pinto is well known and loved in Tyumen; three times he took part in our annual congresses and was a co-president of one of them.

Tyumen specialists also attended the European Congress of Cardiology. Professor Vadim Kuznetsov, Director of Tyumen Cardiology Center presented two poster reports sharing with participants his experience in diagnosis and prevention of coronary artery disease. The first presentation was focused on the association between asymmetric septal hypertrophy and CAD and the second – on psychosocial risk factors for CAD in Tyumen population. Prof. Kuznetsov shared his impressions about the Congress "Barcelona is a city with a long tradition of cardiology. Congress was impressive in its scope and, of course, very well organized. If we talk about the new data that has been presented, in general, cardiology has very optimistic and promising future."

In addition, Vadim Kuznetsov took part in the meeting of the Nominating Committee of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging devoted to EACVI Board and Sections Elections for the period 2014-16. Among the candidates for the post of councillor is one of the leading Russian cardiologists Simon Matskeplishvili.

This article contains the materials of ESC Press Office.