It is a great pleasure for me to introduce this special issue of Experimental & Clinical Cardiology in honour of Dr Naranjan S Dhalla. His 70th birthday is a good opportunity to express our sincere thanks for everything he has done on behalf of our journal. Twelve years ago, Dr Dhalla came up with the idea to establish a new journal for clinical and experimental cardiologists, particularly those in countries where English is not the first language, with greater opportunity to publish their work. The idea was to crystallize and correlate the various advances in basic and clinical research and apply them to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Dr Dhalla then convinced Mr Kalina, the owner of the leading Canadian medical publishing house, Pulsus Group Inc, to start producing the new journal as soon as possible. Experimental & Clinical Cardiology was thus founded 10 years ago – the first issue was published in the summer of 1996. In 2003, Experimental & Clinical Cardiology became the official journal of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, the scientific society founded and developed, again, by Dr Dhalla.
It has been the lifetime desire of Dr Dhalla to clearly define the scientific basis of cardiology. He focused his attention in this area because he recognized early that heart disease is a major killer in the Western world and its trend is on the rise in developing countries. The present issue of Experimental & Clinical Cardiology is therefore dedicated to Dr Dhalla for his superior leadership in the field of experimental cardiology, his strong commitment to excellence in heart research, his clear vision for connecting basic sciences with clinical cardiology and his deep devotion to helping young cardiologists reach their objective. The content of the special issue is based on invited articles by outstanding experimental cardiologists, colleagues and friends of our honoured person.
On behalf of the Editors and the Editorial Board of Experimental & Clinical Cardiology, I wish Dr Dhalla many more fruitful years in his beloved field, experimental cardiology, to which he has dedicated most of his life’s work.