Dear Practitioner,

We are pleased to share with you this special issue with a focus on arrhythmia from presentations at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2015 held in London, United Kingdom.

Arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation (AF) are concerns that many practitioners face on a daily basis. The articles in this issue aim to provide you with a comprehensive view of treatment strategies, including catheter ablation, resynchronization therapy, and anticoagulation therapy.

Among the interesting new trials presented at ESC Congress 2015 was the AEGEAN trial, which employed a proactive education program to encourage patient adherence to apixaban treatment. Though patients receiving new treatment are usually sensitized to the importance of taking it and taking it properly, the study revealed similarly high rates of adherence in both patients who participated in the education program and those who did not at 6 months. The impact of this program beyond 6 months will be evaluated in the second portion of the AEGEAN trial.

Though there have been considerable technological advances since the introduction of the conventional cardiac pacemaker, adverse events typically related to the transvenous leads still occur. The LEADLESS II trial, which investigated a self-contained leadless cardiac pacemaker, found the device to be both safe and effective. At 6 months, serious device-related adverse events occurred in 5.7% of patients, and the primary efficacy end point of acceptable pacing capture threshold and therapeutically acceptable sensing amplitude was achieved in 90% of patients.

Other articles in this issue look at updates in cardiac resynchronization therapy; implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) technology, including the development of leadless and subcutaneous ICDs; wearable cardiac defibrillators; and anticoagulation therapy.

We hope that you find the articles and practical perspectives that are contained in the pages of this special issue of ESC Congress 2015 in Review helpful in integrating this new information into your clinical practice. For more information, please visit mdce.sagepub.com.