"This meeting provides a crucial link between the knowledge we have gained about the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and actually putting that knowledge into practice in communities," said NHLBI Director Dr. Claude Lenfant.

In addition to NHLBI, co-sponsors of the conference, which will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, are the American Heart Association and the following agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services — Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

More than 1,500 health professionals from across the country are expected to attend the conference and thousands more will view sessions via satellite downlink at 145 sites in 41 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada.

Speakers include Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America and Dr. J. Ian Morrison, chairman of the Health Futures Forum, who will give the opening keynote address on April 11 at 8:30 a.m. In addition, top cardiologists, public health professionals, emergency medical care providers, nutritionists, and other experts will speak at four plenary and 62 concurrent sessions. Over 40 exhibits will be open and free to the public. Exhibitors include associations, public interest groups, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and companies offering healthy lifestyle products. The April 13 closing session (11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.) will feature a "talk show" moderated by former Washington, D.C., television news anchorman Paul Berry. Berry will interview several guests, including Valenti and Irene Pollin, founder and chairperson of Sister to Sister — Everyone Has a Heart Foundation. Guests will discuss how they are trying to achieve better cardiovascular health for themselves and for their communities.

According to Conference Chair Dr. Lynn Smaha, of the Guthrie Clinic Ltd in Sayre, PA, and past president of the American Heart Association, the impetus for organizing the conference was the nation's compelling need to implement state-of-the-art strategies to reduce cardiovascular diseases. "Coronary heart disease and stroke — and other cardiovascular diseases — remain the leading causes of death in the U.S. They also take an enormous toll on the individual and society. The conference goal is to help health professionals reduce that toll by improving cardiovascular health and quality of life by the year 2010," he said.

The cardiovascular-related goals and objectives of Healthy People 2010, a national health promotion and disease prevention initiative, serve as the framework for the conference. One Healthy People 2010 goal, to eliminate health disparities among different population segments, is a key focus of the conference.

Selected conference presentations:

• Women and Heart Attack.
  Heart attack causes more death and disability in women than men. Women also are more likely to die in the year after having a heart attack. One reason, says Dr. Jean McSweeney, associate professor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, is a failure to identify women's heart attack symptoms, which tend to differ from men's. McSweeney reports findings about those symptoms, including differences between black and white women, from a recent study of nearly 650 women. (Presentation, April 13, 10:15 a.m.: "Prodromal Symptoms of MI: Comparing Differences in Black and White Women.")

• Culturally Appropriate Obesity Prevention Programs for Youth
  As the rates of obesity continue to climb among U.S. children, intervention methods need to be as diverse as the children themselves to be effective. Dr. Mary Story, professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, shares the development, implementation, and evaluation of three multi-faceted efforts to lower the risk of obesity among children in grade school, including separate programs targeted toward Native American children and toward African American children, and using community-based, school-based and family centered interventions. (Presentation, April 11, 11:15 a.m.: "School and Community-based Programs to Prevent Child and Adolescent Obesity.")

• Sleep Apnea and Cardiovascular Disease
  About 15 million adult Americans have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). In this condition, air cannot flow into or out of a person's nose or mouth and there are brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. Dr. Virend K. Somers, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, discusses how disruption of the normal physiological mechanisms that regulate heart rate and blood pressure in patients with OSA can increase the long-term CVD risk of these patients. (Presentation, April 11, 4:30 p.m.: "Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Disease in Obstructive Sleep Apnea.")

• Integrative Medicine
  Integrative medicine combines conventional medicine with evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine practices and a patient-centered mind-body-spirit approach to care. According to Dr. Martin J. Sullivan, director of science and healing at the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine in Durham, NC, this approach offers considerable promise in cardiology because of the close link between atherosclerosis and lifestyle and the growing science base. (Presentation, April 13, 10:15 a.m.: "Integrative Medicine Approaches to Improve Cardiovascular Health.")

• Early Recognition and Treatment of Heart Attack
  Why do most people with heart attack symptoms wait 2 hours or more before seeking emergency care? For many adults, calling 9-1-1 is a major decision because it gives up one's control, according to Dr. Joseph P. Ornato, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. Ornato discusses a proposed pilot project in Richmond, VA that might avoid an immediate ambulance and trip to the hospital. Instead, a team of fully trained and equipped paramedics would be dispatched in a private vehicle to the person's home. The paramedics would administer diagnostic tests to the patient. Results would be reviewed with an emergency physician at the hospital via a two-way telemedicine device. Some patients would be given a wearable automatic external defibrillator that would shock the patient's heart into beating if needed and automatically dial 9-1-1. (Plenary Presentation, April 12, 8:00 a.m.: "Emergency Medical System Response to Patients with Coronary Syndromes.")

• Depression and Cardiovascular Disease in Older Americans.
  Recent studies suggest depression worsens death and disability from cardiovascular disease among older Americans. Dr. Bruce Rollman, assistant professor of medicine, psychiatry, and health at the University of Pittsburgh, proposes mechanisms for depression's dangerous effects, as well as ways to prevent further cardiovascular illness. (Presentation, April 12, 9:15 a.m.: "The Impact of Depression and Its Treatment on CVD in Older Adults.")

• High-Normal Blood Pressure.
  Recent research has shown that high-normal blood pressure significantly increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. High-normal blood pressure affects about a third of American adults, according to Dr. Lawrence John Appel of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, MD. Appel presents lifestyle and public health approaches that could reduce this growing risk. (Presentation, April 11, 4:30 p.m.: "The Public Health Challenge of High Normal Blood Pressure.")

• Getting Americans Moving.
  Physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease-yet most American adults do not engage in it regularly. Dr. Bess Marcus, director of the Physical Activity Research Center at Brown University Medical School in Providence, RI, reviews what works and what doesn't in getting sedentary Americans moving. (Presentation, April 12, 4:45 p.m.: "Using Interactive Technologies for Physical Activity Promotion.")

For more information, call the NHLBI Communications Office at (301) 496-4236. The conference program is online at http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/cvh2002/ Reporters can register on-site at the main conference registration desk. Registered reporters are welcome for breakfast and refreshments in the conference Press Room, Suite 2022 in the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2660 Woodley Road, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.