The Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus hosts next Thursday and Friday the first edition of the congress Ischemic condition and targeting reperfusion injury: a 30 year voyage of discovery, organized by the Aula Vall d'Hebron. This event, led by Dr. Derek J. Hausenloy, from the http://bit.ly/1Wajssy Duke-NUS University in Singapore and Dr. David García-Dorado, head of the http://bit.ly/1JN3rzE Cardiology Service, at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and head of the http://bit.ly/1VQcDwm research group in cardiovascular pathology at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, will bring together for the first time the world's leading experts in ischemic heart disease and its treatment. "It's the first time a congress of this nature takes place," explained Dr. García-Dorado, who underlined that it will serve to analyze the present and the future of the treatment of this disease by reperfusion (re-open the coronary artery blocked and restore blood flow), taking into account their limitations and research of new therapeutic solutions to protect the heart of patients with myocardial infarction. "This pathology, despite reperfusion therapy, is a serious disease, with high mortality and morbidity, and new ways to treat and protect the heart are being studied," stressed the head of Cardiology at Vall d'Hebron.Among the congress participants there are prominent figures as Dr. Robert J. Jennings, who discovered 30 years ago ischemic preconditioning. This technique avoids the negative effects of reperfusion in the treatment of myocardial infarction using brief episodes of ischemia (briefly leave without irrigation the affected area, the heart or other organ). They will also visit Vall d'Hebron, Dr. Hans Erik Bø,tker, chief of Cardiology at the http://bit.ly/1SP9TNb Aarhus University Hospital, the first to prove the positive effect of remote ischemic conditioning in patients with myocardial infarction that should undergo angioplasty, and Dr. Michel Ovize, Lyon Hospital, who led the first study in patients and made the description of the protective effect of post ischemic conditioning (open the blocked artery open intermittently before definitively leave it open).Leading cause of death by the disease in the countryIschemic heart disease is the leading cause of death by disease in the country. In 2014, deaths from this disease were more than 32,000 (according to the http://bit.ly/1SP8oP7 National Statistics Institute), a figure that placed it ahead of cerebrovascular diseases and lung cancer. Each year around 50,000 heart attacks occur in the country. In fact, in the whole of Europe 4.1 million deaths from cardiovascular disease occur. Prevention is a key aspect, if we consider the impact of factors such as age, lifestyle or diabetes (type 2 diabetes is one of the most important risk indicators). Although almost half of patients with a first myocardial infarction did not have any of the major risk factors.Survivors of myocardial infarction have an increased risk of a coronary event of greater importance and have an annual mortality rate of 5%, six times higher than healthy individuals of the same age. The current treatment is reperfusion, to be performed the sooner the better, in the first 12 hours and, if possible, by percutaneous intervention (primary angioplasty), but this technique has limitations. It has to be completed within 90 to 120 minutes, limiting the dimension of the infarct as much as possible, and additionally, the process of reperfusion of ischemic myocardium may result in up to 50% more damage. For this reason it is so important to develop new therapeutic strategies to protect the hearts of patients with myocardial infarction who undergo a primary angioplasty.