The evolution of the European Respiratory Journal : ready for the new decade!

[摘要] The year started with publication of the proceedings of the 6th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension, providing key updates on pathogenesis, genetics, diagnosis and treatment of all classes of pulmonary hypertension [1–14]. The World Symposium has been held every 5 years since 1973 and the proceedings provide comprehensive guidance on the state of the art in pulmonary vascular disease. This series was published in the ERJ for the first time in its 45-year history, and perhaps the most impactful article of the series was that on the new haemodynamic definitions and updated clinical classification of pulmonary hypertension [5]. This document proposed a threshold of pulmonary artery pressure >20 mmHg to define clinically significant disease. Whether or not this new threshold should lead to a rewriting of the textbooks of medicine was addressed in a pro/con editorial a few months later, and generated significant debate [15–20]. The series further discussed future clinical trial design and also the critical impact of patient perspectives [9, 14]. The entire series was published open access in acknowledgement of the critical nature of these articles for the global pulmonary community.

[学科分类] 呼吸医学