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The British Heart Valve Society will host a specialist valve clinic symposium, held at Governors’ Hall, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, on the February 13th 2012. It is designed for those from all disciplines involved in heart valve disease including cardiology, sonography, cardiac physiology, cardiac nursing, primary care, public health, commissioning, and NHS management.

For more information, visit www.bhvs.org.uk.

Ambulatory external electrocardiogram (AECG) monitoring technology plays an important role in patients with known atrial fibrillation (AF) to guide ventricular rate control and anticoagulation therapy, and assess the efficacy of antiarrhythmic drug therapy and/or ablation procedures, according to a review published recently in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.¹

The state of genetic testing for potentially heritable channelopathies and cardiomyopathies is the focus of an international consensus statement published recently in Europace.¹

Survival to discharge after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OOHCA) improves dramatically with a reduction in ambulance response times, according to a study¹ published recently in Europace.

There is no evidence that current use of an attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug increases the risk of serious cardiovascular events in children and young adults, according to a retrospective cohort study¹ published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.

New quarterly figures showing the quality of stroke care in hospitals in England and Northern Ireland are now available on the Royal College of Physicians website: www.rcplondon.ac.uk. The results show local hospital results for patients admitted between July and September 2011.

A multidisciplinary centre aimed at tackling issues of health and wellbeing has been launched recently at Leeds Metropolitan University. The Institute for Health & Wellbeing will undertake research into the health status of individuals and communities, investigating issues including men’s health, community health, and childhood obesity.

Aspirin increases the risk of bleeding without decreasing the risk of stroke/thromboembolism sufficiently in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study¹ published recently in Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) has announced an educational programme at the 22nd Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology, held in Beijing from the 15–16th October, to help reduce the mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in China, now amongst the highest in the world.¹

The clinical applications and legislative complexities of genetic technology are explored by a new report¹ from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), Royal College of Pathologists and British Society for Human Genetics.