CARDIOVASCULAR PREVENTION AND REHABILITATION

In the network of cardiologists within the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Physiology there is a strong view that the time indeed is right to publish definitively on the methods involved in cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation. We are facing a transition from conventional cardiac rehabilitation to a phase of combined preventive and rehabilitative efforts, as witnessed in the recent Joint Task Force Guidelines on Preventive Cardiology. For this revision of our clinical routines we lack a practical textbook, based upon the conditions and resources of European health care. This textbook is designed to fill that gap.

Over the past decades the medical care of patients with cardiovascular disease has improved exponentially with significant benefits to mortality, morbidity and the quality of life of coronary patients. Modern cardiac rehabilitation and preventative cardiology have been and continue to be crucial to these improvements.

Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation is a timely and thorough review of prevention, lifestyle counseling and rehabilitation for cardiologists and all physicians and other health professionals in cardiac rehabilitation teams. The Editors have gathered over 60 experts from all parts of the globe, each highlighting the role of cardiac rehabilitation and preventative cardiology from exercise testing and training, through nutrition, smoking cessation, behavioral and social support to adapted programs for newer groups with specific demands, such as the elderly, patients with implantable devices and patients after cardiac transplantation. Importantly, much emphasis is placed on the organizational aspects of cardiac rehabilitation, including quality assurance and economic evaluation.

Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation has been carefully and thoughtfully structured to provide practical guidance for all cardiologists and other health personnel engaged in the management of cardiac patients.