Interdisciplinarity in Cardiovascular Pathology

Dear Colleagues,

As our knowledge about diseases becomes more and more advanced, we better understand the complexity of their etiopathogenic substrate. This allows us to reach a precise diagnosis more quickly and institute the appropriate treatment. As a result, both the patients' life span and their quality of life have improved.

To obtain these benefits for our patients, who increasingly have complex comorbidities, we must recognize and learn about the integrated management of these conditions. We highlight a few directions in which we should particularly focus our attention.

First, we consider it important to thoroughly understand the recently recognized cardio-reno-metabolic syndrome, which is a triangle of common comorbidities with a major impact on the quality and life expectancy of patients in the general population. The components of this syndrome have common elements of pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis; therefore, the complex relationships of interdependence must be approached unitarily.

Second, the relationship between pulmonary and cardiovascular disease is equally complex and significant. The continued increase in the prevalence of smoking and obesity leads to an upward trend in chronic lung disease with severe mixed ventilatory dysfunction and sleep apnea syndrome, both with arrhythmic and hemodynamic implications, particularly by impacting the right heart.

And third, the low-grade inflammation that characterizes some rheumatological and gastroenterological diseases is increasingly being accepted as an important contributor to accelerated atherosclerosis and destabilization of atherosclerotic plaques, ultimately leading to events in the broad spectrum of acute or chronic coronary syndromes.

Considering the need to approach the patient as a unitary whole both diagnostically and therapeutically and the strong echo that other diseases have on the heart and blood vessels, we invite researchers in the field of fundamental sciences and clinical practice to join us in the effort of an interdisciplinary approach to cardiovascular diseases. Original studies and review articles are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Irina-Iuliana Costache
Dr. Minerva Codruta Badescu
Guest Editors

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• cardiovascular disease
• atherosclerosis
• cardio-reno-metabolic syndrome
• diabetes
• obesity
• obstructive pulmonary disease
• sleep apnea syndrome
• low-grade inflammation