Press Release
An international Symposium in Bucharest
addressing the main cardiology issues
Bucharest, 16 April 2015 – The international symposium being held in Bucharest (Romania) from 16 to 18 April 2015 entitled “Update in cardiology” has been organised by the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Bucharest and the Romanian Society of Cardiology, and is promoted by the Fondazione Internazionale Menarini of Milan (Italy).
The main cardiology issues addressed during the three days of the symposium include hypertension, atrial fibrillation, coronaropathy, heart failure, interventional cardiology and imaging. Worth noting, during the symposium the ceremony will be held to award an honorary degree to Louis J. Ignarro, Professor of Molecular Pharmacology of the University of California in Los Angeles (USA) and winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1998.
Just over thirty years ago, Luis Ignarro, an American biochemist, currently at the UCLA University of Los Angeles, discovered that nitric oxide acts as an intracellular mediator in the body. In 1998 this discovery earned Ignarro the Nobel Prize for Medicine, and now the researcher is in Bucharest to share current progress and results in this field with colleagues hailing from all over the world. The clinical trials are currently focussing on cardiovascular diseases in particular. “Nitric oxide and hydrogen sulphide are involved in a number of cardiovascular diseases due to the alteration of their secretion, in both excess and defect that can either give rise to pathological effects or bring benefits” explains Ignarro. “More specifically, nitric oxide is the mediator that underpins the activity of many drugs used in the cardiovascular field, among which the most well-known and most widely used are probably the nitroderivates, such as nitro-glycerine. In addition to nitric oxide, the action mechanism of other drugs like nebivolol, sildenafil and the anti-oxidants is also very interesting.
In particular, nebivolol is able to stimulate the enzyme NO synthase of the endothelium of the blood vessels to product nitric oxide; moreover, nitric oxide and nebivolol have a synergistic protective effect on the cardiovascular system. The demonstration that nitric oxide is an ubiquitous factor that plays a vital role in the regulation of numerous cell functions and in the protection of tissues and organs has also allowed for shedding light on the origins of diseases in which it is possible to detect defects in its production”.
Another important topic of the symposium is atrial fibrillation and the prevention of strokes thanks to anticoagulant therapies. Underlying the discussion is the RE-LY study and the more recent RELY-ABLE study. “The results of the RELY-ABLE study have provided additional data which, also in the long term, confirm the safety and effectiveness profile of the anticoagulant therapies in preventing strokes in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation”, explains Dragos Vinereanu, Professor of Cardiology at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Bucharest and chairman of the symposium. “The combined data of the RE-LY and RELY-ABLE studies correspond to more than four years of clinical experience and provide the most in-depth assessment of the benefits of oral anticoagulant drugs in the prevention of strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation”.
The international multicentre RELY-ABLE study followed 5,851 patients for an additional period of 28 months after completing the RE-LY study, in order to assess the long-term benefits. The results of the RELY-ABLE study confirm the maintaining of the benefits in the long term: frequency of ischaemic stroke 1.15%/year-1.24%/year and the incidence of haemorrhagic stroke 0.13%/year.
“In view of the progressive increase in their lifespan, patients suffering from atrial fibrillation now have the prospect of being able to take anticoagulant drugs for many years”, continues Vinereanu. “Faced with this scenario, the fact of having data over the long term represents additional safety not only for patients but also for their physicians, considering that people suffering from atrial fibrillation can now exploit the benefits deriving from protracted long-term treatment”.
Nine out of ten strokes associated with atrial fibrillation are of an ischaemic nature, episodes that can cause irreversible neurological damage with devastating consequences in the long term, such as paralysis, disabilities and language difficulties.
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