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BARCELONA -- A pair of heavily-armed security forces personnel guarded the main entrance to the European Society of Cardiology Congress here, but there were no metal detectors or bag searches, despite terrorist attacks in this city last week.
ESC past president Fausto Pinto, MD, said "there were only 40 cancellations" out of 31,000 registrants after the attacks that killed 13 and wounded close to 100.
In fact, this year's congress has the largest attendance for a Barcelona ESC meeting, Pinto said at a press briefing.
Pinto said the decision to post armed security at the entrances was made by Barcelona authorities. At the 2016 ESC Congress in Rome, attendees were subjected to both metal detectors and bag searches. Asked about lack of those precautions this year, Mike Morrissey, who oversees ESC security, said the difference was "the Pope," noting that Pope Francis addressed the ESC on the final day of the meeting -- although the extra security was put in place days before the papal visit.
The theme for this year's congress is percutaneous coronary interventions, chosen to mark the 40th anniversary of the first balloon angioplasty, performed on Sept. 16, 1977 by said Stephan Achenback, MD, chair of the ESC congress program committee.
Achenback noted that the ESC received 288 submissions for Hot Line presentations, "40% more than last year, and is why we expanded the Hot Line sessions to four." Hot Line presentations begin Sunday, and the data will be presented in a 3,000-seat hall.
In addition to Hot Line submissions, the ESC received 10,804 abstract submissions and accepted 4,514 for presentation. Researchers from Japan submitted the greatest number of abstracts, and that country also ranked first in abstract acceptances. The United States ranked sixth in abstract acceptances.
In his weekly ľֱ blog, Revolution and Revaluation, Milton Packer, MD, was critical of the current late-breaking or Hot Line trial process, in part objecting to the practice of using a designated discussant rather than open-mic audience questions after trialists report findings. Asked about that criticism, Achenback said, "it is a question of logistics." He noted that in a room with 3,000 people, there is a risk of "spending 10 minutes to answer some really weird question, while a discussant can ask some well-chosen questions."
Pinto added that the ESC recognizes the learning opportunities for open discussion of scientific findings, so several years ago it added "meet the trialist sessions, where people have the opportunity for direct discourse. ... These sessions are always crowded."
Finally, Achenback said that practice-changing findings are more likely to come from trials that deal with practical issues like airway management, such as DETO2X-SWEDEHEART on oxygen therapy in suspected acute myocardial infarction, rather than from "mega trials like CANTOS and COMPASS."
CANTOS deals with the use of anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibody canakinumab (Ilaris) to prevent cardiovascular events in patients with atherosclerosis and a history of MI. COMPASS is a comparison of the use of rivaroxaban (Xarelto) plus aspirin or rivaroxaban alone against aspirin alone to prevent CV events.