Stent angioplasty. 3d illustration by Shutterstock

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine is pleased to announce Professor Peter Wenaweser as the Specialty Chief Editor for the new section Structural Interventional Cardiology. The section is open for submissions (see scope of section) and welcomes applications to the editorial board.

Peter Wenaweser is one of the leading interventional cardiologists focusing on the treatment of coronary artery diseases and heart valve defects. In 2007 Wenaweser conducted the first transfemoral aortic valve implantation in Switzerland. He also made significant scientific contributions to the advancement of interventional cardiology. Currently, his research focuses on TAVI with the involvement of multi-center studies and a variety of publications on the outcome, predictors and associated co-morbidites.

Wenaweser describes the interventional cardiology specialty as the area that “deals with the treatment of cardiac diseases with the help of percutaneous interventions”. With new approaches and techniques “not only tackling coronary artery disease but also structural heart disorders like PFO (patent foramen ovale), left atrial appendage occlusion and valvular interventions” the field has greatly advanced in the past decade. TAVI, which has become a “widespread treatment option for a majority of elderly patients with severe aortic stenosis” shows that the introduction of several access approaches to the heart has opened up the field for more complex percutaneous heart interventions.

Wenaweser points to the key challenges in this area:

“The biggest challenge will be to develop a safe and reliable intervention – repair or replacement – for mitral valve disease. […] No device has been able to restore the function of a diseased mitral valve as it has been achieved with a TAVI device. The variety of anatomical structures of the mitral valve and the association with the left ventricle appears to be a big challenge to develop an uncomplicated device which provides a long-term solution for mitral valve disease. Moreover, it appears crucial to develop strategies on how to implement innovations into clinical practice reasonably. Health economic issues are closely related to innovations and need to be respected and reflected in parallel to the technological achievements.”

By launching this new section and publishing interesting articles on all areas of structural interventional cardiology, Wenaweser hopes to contribute to faster developments in this field. Together with other specialists, the aim of this section is to support research activities in structural interventional cardiology, support authors with a collaborative peer review approach and publish articles which contribute substantially to the education of interventional cardiologists but also set-up a stage for new ideas and discussions.

Help us in achieving those aims by submitting your manuscript(s), joining our Editorial Board, or proposing a thematic collection of articles! For more information, contact the Editorial Office at cardiovascularmedicine@frontiersin.org. We look forward to hearing back from you!

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine welcomes Prof Peter Wenaweser in his new role as Specialty Chief Editor