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(Circulation Research. 2001;88:253.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Cardiovascular Research

A Look Into Tomorrow

Claude Lenfant

From the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md.

Correspondence to Claude Lenfant, MD, Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bldg 31, Room 5A5231, Center Dr, MSC 2486, Bethesda, MD 20892. E-mail lenfantc@nih.giv

Key Words: genomics • cardiovascular genetics • cell biology • molecular imaging • imaging

	Introduction

 
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

William Cowper, 1731–1800

The second half of the last century was a period of tremendous excitement and accomplishment in the fight against cardiovascular diseases. Looking back, one can point to three major events that provided the foundation for this era of great progress in medical as well as surgical approaches to these diseases.

One of those events was the introduction of cardiac catheterization into clinical medicine by Andre Cournand and Dickerson Richards in the late 1940s. Its importance was appropriately noted by Liljestrand in his Nobel prize presentation speech in 1956: "Professors Cournand, Forssmann, and Richards: the Karolinska Institute has decided to award this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to you jointly for your discoveries concerning cardiac catheterization and pathologic changes in the circulatory system... . Together, they signify the initiation and development of a new and important approach to our understanding of heart disease." Indeed, as we reflect on our accumulated knowledge of the pathophysiology of heart disease, we must recognize that much of it is the result of the ever-wider use of cardiac catheterization.

The second memorable event of the last century was the introduction of open heart surgery. A myriad of pioneers in many countries contributed to the surgical wonders that we, today, consider ordinary, but the surgeons who took the first steps must be recognized—John Lewis, for the first open heart surgery using hypothermia in 1952, and . . . [Full Text of this Article]