Journals

Welcome to our third issue of the EMJ flagship for 2023, which focuses on rare diseases. Our team attended the European Conference on Rare Diseases (ECRD) at the end of June, and we are delighted to bring you the highlights from the event. The ECRD saw patients, clinicians, policy makers, and other key stakeholders come together to enable innovation and help drive rare disease policies across Europe.

This article discussed cigarette smoking as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Looking through the lens of toxic cigarette smoke constituents, the review described the oxidative stress and inflammatory responses induced following their entry into the bloodstream.

Highlighting a presentation that took place as part of the European Society of Cardiology’s (ESC) Heart Failure 2022 congress, this article summarised data on the efficacy and safety of aficamten in patients with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

This article covers multiple oral and poster presentations dedicated to gene therapy as a treatment for haemophilia A and B, which took place at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) Congress, 9th–13th July 2022.

The 2022 International Scientific Conference of Probiotics, Prebiotics, Gut Microbiota and Health® took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 27th–30th June. A common theme throughout the conference was that, although significant progress has been made, considerable work remains to be done in understanding how probiotics work, aligning definitions of microbiome-modifying agents, and communicating evidence-based recommendations to clinicians and consumers.

Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2021, Gabriel Steg and Kausik Ray discussed the residual risk of recurrent cardiovascular (CV) events that remains despite optimal standards of care for secondary prevention in the 90-day high-risk period after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Several presentations at the recent International Liver Congress™ (ILC), held in London, UK, from 22nd–26th of June 2022, addressed the role of the gut microbiome in chronic liver disease.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a condition that affects certain males in their lifetimes. This infographic covers the link between males with ED and work productivity in eight countries.