Prize Winners 2013: Joint Annual Meeting Swiss Society of Cardiology and Swiss Society of Cardiac and Vascular Thoracic Surgery

Figure 1. The presidents of the Swiss Society of Heart and Vascular Thoracic Surgery and the Swiss Society of Cardiology with the prize winners.

Figure 1. The presidents of the Swiss Society of Heart and Vascular Thoracic Surgery and the Swiss Society of Cardiology with the prize winners.

From June 12 to 14, 2013, the joint annual meeting of the Swiss Society of Cardiology (SSC) and the Swiss Society of Cardiac and Vascular Thoracic Surgery took place in Lugano with over 800 participants. This event provided the opportunity to award prizes to young researchers in the great array of topics in cardiovascular research.

The Scientific Research Prize of the Swiss Society of Cardiology, with prize money CHF 30,000 intended for research, was awarded by Professor Thomas

Lüscher, President of the Award Committee, to Fabrizio Montecucco from Geneva (Figure 2 and Figure 3). His research helps clarify the role of some novel inflammatory mediators in mouse models of acute cardiovascular diseases. The prize will be used to investigate further the crucial role of novel biomarkers (such as visfatin) in plaque vulnerability and ischaemic stroke. This years Scientific Prize of the Swiss Heart Foundation and the prize money of CHF 20,000 went to Georg Ehret from Geneva (Figure 4). In his work he focused on the identification of single nucleotide polymorphysms (Snips) as genetic markers indicating a higher risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Ehret wrote several articles on the subject, amongst them the prize-winning “Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk” published in the September 11, 2011, issue of Nature. The prize was handed over by Professor Agusto Gallino, President of the Research Committee of the Swiss Heart Foundation.

The 2013 Scientific Prize of the Swiss Society of Heart and Vascular Thoracic Surgery was awarded to Denis Berdajs (Figure 5) from Lausanne for the Book “Operative Anatomy of the Heart” written together with Marco Turina and published 2011 by the Springer Verlag. The book illustrates, in hundreds of photographs and drawings, human thoracic anatomy as seen through the eyes of a cardiac surgeon. Professor Michele Genoni emphasised the importance of this book as an up-to-date foundation for preparation for cardiac surgery interventions.

Over 250 scientific abstracts were submitted under eight abstract topics in 2013. For each of these eight topics a prize was awarded for the best-rated abstract. The prize encompasses registration to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2014 in Barcelona, as well as travel and housing expenses. Prize winner in the topic on pathophysiology, physiology and molecular biology was Remo Daniel Spescha, Zurich, for his work on “Postischaemic in-vivo p66shc silencing as a therapeutic strategy for ischaemia/reperfusion brain injury”.

Andreas Häberlin, Bern, won the prize in the topic electrophysiology, pacemaker and arrhythmia for this abstract titled “Towards a batteryless sunlight-powered pacemaker”.

The abstract “Differential prognostic impact of heart rate in younger and older patients with chronic heart failure” by Marzena Zurek from St. Gallen won in the topic heart failure, heart transplantation, cardiomyopathy, valvulopathy and pericardium.

The best-rated clinical case was submitted by Alexander Breitenstein from Zürich. He wrote on “A rare cause of paradoxical systemic embolism”.

The prize for Masanori Taniwaki and his abstract “Frequency and type of neoatherosclerosis five years after drug-eluting stent implantation: an optical coherence tomography study”, submitted in the topic on coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, PCI and CABG was sponsored by A. Menarini AG.

The same is true for Stefano Muzzarelli, Lugano and his abstract titled “Stress-perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) at 3.0 Tesla: diagnostic accuracy and appropriateness of CMR-driven coronary angiography. A single centre experience” in the topic echocardiography, MRI, nuclear medicine, ergometer and congenital cardiology. Daiichi Sankyo sponsored the prize for the topic on risk factors, hypertension, epidemiology, rehabilitation and thrombotic disease. The winner was Andreia Schmidt from Bern. Her abstract was titled “High altitude exposure is haemodynamically well tolerated in patients with simple congenital heart disease”. Patrick Myers, Geneva, submitted the abstract “Cardiac resynchronisation therapy after anatomic repair for congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries”. Myers won the prize for the best abstract in the category cardiac and vascular thoracic surgery.

It was a great pleasure to award the prizes and further science and scientists in cardiovascular research.