Diversity of expertise in a united cardiology specialty

Abstract

Academic journals devoted to the field of interventional cardiology have become an unmatched source of information over the last decade or so, keeping us up-to-date with the latest developments and broadening our horizons as interventional cardiologists. As we celebrate the arrival of a new peer-reviewed journal in interventional cardiology, REC: Interventional Cardiology,1 we take the opportunity to reflect on recent developments in cardiology and contemplate the future direction of this dynamic and diverse specialty. The development of coronary catheterisation by Sones in 1958, followed by the introduction of dedicated coronary catheters by Judkins and Amplatz in 1967, and ultimately, the introduction of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by Grüntzig in 1977 established interventional cardiology as a subspecialty of general cardiology.2 The first coronary stenting procedures conducted by Sigwart and Paul in 1986 and the subsequent development of drug-eluting stents with succeeding iterations, along with other advances in device technologies, transcatheter techniques, and adjunctive pharmacotherapies, have facilitated treatment of more and more complex patients- and lesion-subsets with PCI. Coincidentally, the development of percutaneous interventions for the management of structural heart disease resulted in the emergence of a new subspecialty of cardiac transcatheter interventions: structural intervention. The inception of transcatheter aortic valve...