Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) prevalence continues to increase, and it is still the number one killer so far. In 2002, nearly 17 million deaths all over the world were attributable to CVDs, which accounted for almost 30% of the total deaths. Despite treatment with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and many other conventional medicines, CVDs patients are still confronted with certain risk of recurrent acute cardiovascular events, readmission to the hospital, and unfavorable quality of life. In recent years, more and more clinicians have successfully applied complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) in CVDs prevention and treatment based on standardized conventional therapy. Nevertheless, the role of CAM in CVDs still needs more clinical evidence and definite mechanism of actions.

Therefore, we invite authors to submit original research and review articles that seek to provide rigorous evidence favoring the potential benefit of CAM in CVDs (including cerebrovascular diseases). We are particularly interested in articles of randomized controlled trial (RCT) and systematic review and meta-analysis, as well as in vivo or in vitro research to explore the exact mechanism of actions of CAM in preventing and treating CVDs. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• RCT of CAM in preventing and treating CVDs, especially multicenter, large-scale RCTs with follow-up clinical data
• Systematic review and/or meta-analysis of CAM in preventing and treating CVDs
• Data analysis of cohort study or large registry study to confirm the benefit of CAM in preventing and treating CVDs
• Clinical practice and experience of how to integrate CAM with conventional medicine in preventing and treating CVDs
• Experimental research to elucidate mechanisms of action of CAM in preventing and treating CVDs
• Research on herb-drug interaction during prevention and treatment of CVDs
• Perspective or commentary article of CAM in preventing and treating CVDs

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: