News from Pacing and Electrophysiology MeetingsAround the World

Europe

XIXth Congress of the European Society

of Cardiology, Stockholm, Sweden,

August 24–28, 1997

The annual ESC meeting drew record attendance thisyear. Over 18,000 participants, including physicians,allied health care professionals and exhibitors partici-pated in the sessions which were held at the StockholmFair Grounds. The meeting was presided over by thecurrent president of the Society, Professor Gunter Bre-ithardt of Germany and inaugurated by the CrownPrincess of Sweden. Participants from over 50 nationswere present, with prominent involvement of dele-gates from Eastern Europe and non-European nations.U.S. attendance approached 1000 and included the for-mal presence of the American College of Cardiology,Continuing Medical Education Division of the Ameri-can Medical Association, and the North American So-ciety of Pacing and Electrophysiology. The meetingwas marked by a strong presence of arrhythmia, pac-ing and interventional electrophysiology sessions. For-mats ranged from case conferences with senior faculty,which drew overwhelming audiences, as well as didac-tic lectures, abstracts and satellite symposia. The re-sults of the long awaited DIAMOND study examiningthe use of dofetilide in congestive heart failure andmyocardial infarction populations was preliminarilypresented. This showed no signi~cant difference in out-come in dofetilide and placebo arms of the study incongestive heart failure patients. The Hot Trials ses-sions were well received and have expanded with theprogressive growth of this meeting which now rivalsthe major U.S. meetings in attendance. The expandingneeds of the meeting exceeded the capacity of down-town Stockholm for hotel space and required the re-cruitment of the environs of the city. The next AnnualMeeting of the ESC is scheduled to be held in Viennain August 1998.

U.S.A.

Atrial Fibrillation: the Arrhythmia of

the Elderly 7th Annual Cardiovascular

Symposium, Yale University School of

Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut,

August 11–13, 1997

This three-day symposium on atrial ~brillation pro-vided a true indepth look at the many facets of the mostcommon arrhythmia with a strong multidisciplinaryapproach. Organized and directed by Professor Mi-chael Ezekowitz, the symposium reviewed epidemiol-ogy, cardiac and noncardiac disorders resulting inatrial ~brillation, animal models and anatomic facetsrelative to the pathogenesis of the arrhythmia, geneticand echocardiographic aspects, nonpharmacologictherapies including catheter and device-based inter-ventions, stroke prevention and intensity of anticoagu-lation. Spirited debates on rate and rhythm control andthe role of surgery using thoracoscopic and other meth-ods rounded out the review.

Upcoming Meetings

ASIA

VI Asian-Paci~c Symposium on Cardiac

Pacing and Electrophysiology, New

Delhi, India, October 25–28, 1997

This quadrennial meeting will attract over 1000 par-ticipants with an overseas faculty of over 100 partici-pants. Four days of programming includes all aspectsof basic and advanced pacing and electrophysiology,with a strong focus on tutorials and state-of-the-artlectures. Competitive abstracts will also be presentedand printed in a special supplement to PACE.

U.S.A.

American Heart Association 70th

Scienti~c Sessions, Orlando, Florida,

November 9–12, 1997

This annual meeting is scheduled for four days of pro-gramming and includes competitive abstracts, plenarylectures, symposia and ~reside panels. Over 25,000 at-tendees are expected from all ~elds of cardiovascularmedicine.

Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology 1997;1:333

© Kluwer Academic Publishers. Boston. Printed in U.S.A.

333