Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in most developed countries. CVD prevalence is also rapidly increasing in developing countries, where the limited identification and treatment options led to frequent unreported cases. Thus, improved strategies for the prevention and treatment of CVD are a worldwide public health priority. Unlike other disease areas, access to tissue samples for diagnostic or prognostic purposes is extremely limited in cardiovascular diseases. Despite overwhelming numbers of studies on biomarkers related to CVD, none of the biomarkers alone significantly improved differentiation between cases and controls. Traditional risk factors (cigarette smoking, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension) are identified in only a subset of individuals who develop cardiovascular diseases. There is an urgent need to identify novel risk markers for cardiovascular diseases for better risk prediction and development of evidence based novel therapies.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles about the discovery of novel biomarkers and management of current biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Novel biomarkers and genetic risk factors in gaining mechanistic insight into CVD pathogenesis
• New application of existing biomarkers
• Strategies for the discovery and validation of biomarkers in body fluids; the latest technologies in the field of integrated biomarker assessment and qualification in the context of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cardiovascular diseases
• The latest clinical data associated with biomarkers in cardiovascular disease risk prediction and clinical management of disease