Programme highlight: Pulmonary vascular diseases

Pulmonary vascular diseases at Congress:

The burden of pulmonary vascular diseases is underestimated; diseases such as pulmonary embolism and pulmonary hypertension and their effects on right heart function make significant contributions to the global burden of chronic respiratory disease. This year's Congress draws attention to this area and discusses new trends and challenges through a range of scientific and educational sessions.

Sessions include a state-of-the-art symposium on 'Pulmonary vascular diseases', a meet the expert session on 'Pulmonary arterial hypertension: treatment options', a hot topic session on 'New trends in the management of pulmonary hypertension' and a challenging clinical case looking at 'Broad spectrum chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension', plus much more.*

Use the programme to find all related sessions

To search for sessions specifically linked to the topic of respiratory critical care you can use the online search tool; simply access the online programme, click on 'Advance' and select 'Pulmonary vascular diseases' from the 'Track' options. The programme can also be used to search for keywords, speakers and dates.

Hear from ERS officers

ERS introduced a dedicated assembly for pulmonary vascular diseases in 2017 – made up of healthcare professionals and scientists from around the world and led by experts in this field; head of the ERS Assembly on Pulmonary Vascular Diseases Professor Marion Delcroix (MD), assembly secretary Professor Anton Vonk Noordegraaf (AVN), and the early-career representative Dr Sheila Ramjug (SR) offer us some insight into this year's event.

What can professionals specialising in this area expect to gain from attending this year's Congress?

MD: As this is the first ERS Congress since the creation of Assembly 13 on pulmonary vascular diseases, we aimed to have sessions summarising current knowledge in the field and to set the scene for more specialised developments and sessions in the upcoming meetings. As mentioned above, we have more sessions than before, with more abstracts and more oral presentations and posters, with more science to be presented this year.

What in your opinion will be the popular topics relating to pulmonary vascular diseases at this year's Congress and what will be particular highlight for you?

AVN: In recent years several novel treatments become available in the field of pulmonary arterial hypertension and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The 2018 ERS Congress will deal with two important topics; the first topic is how to optimise treatment strategies using available treatment, and the is the discovery of new agents, which has the potential of reversing abnormal vascular growth.

As an early-career professional with a focus on pulmonary vascular diseases, why is the upcoming Congress valuable to career development?

SR: Pulmonary vascular disease is an area that is often not well addressed during pulmonology training. Since the first WHO symposium of pulmonary hypertension in the 70s our understanding of the disease process has improved as reflected in this year's 6th World Symposium. As a pulmonary trainee it is important to appreciate that pulmonary vascular diseases encompass a whole range of conditions, from where we have proven therapies such as idiopathic disease, to those with pulmonary hypertension related to chronic conditions, such as obstructive airways disease.

The Congress reflects these alterations, hosting both a number of pulmonary vascular disease sole sessions, as well as joint sessions between different assemblies and non-pulmonologists. The Congress also has fantastic sessions covering both acute and chronic pulmonary embolism, which is especially topical given the recent publication of the BTS guidance of outpatient management of pulmonary embolism.

The pulmonary vascular sessions this year in Paris will empower the pulmonary trainee to feel more confident in identifying those at risk of pulmonary vascular disease as well as providing them with up-to date knowledge of the appropriate investigations and new management strategies.

You can join the ERS Assembly on Pulmonary vascular diseases using our online platform myERS and ensure that you are kept up to date with developments and opportunities in this area.

*Note: Educational sessions (postgraduate courses, skills workshops, professional development workshops and meet the expert sessions) can be attended at an additional cost to the standard registration fee