NVVC/NHJ Durrer Prizes 2012.

At the annual Spring Congress of the NVVC the Durrer prizes were awarded to the authors of the best original/review articles published in the year 2012, one paper being more basically-oriented and one paper being more clinically-oriented. This annual tradition exists already since the year 2006.

For the eighth time in a row, the Netherlands Heart Journal (NHJ), the official journal of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology (NVVC), awarded the Durrer Prize to the two best NHJ articles published in the year 2012.

In 2006, it was thought appropriate by the NVVC Board to set up a special publication prize in order to stimulate the submission of outstanding scientific articles to NHJ. Two articles per year are selected, one more basically oriented and one with a mainly clinical focus [1, 2].

The NHJ publication prize carries the name of one of the fathers of Dutch Cardiology, Professor Dirk Durrer (1918–1984, Head of the Department of Cardiology in the ‘Wilhelmina Gasthuis’, Amsterdam) who performed pioneering work in the field of electrical activation of the heart in the 1960s and 1970s [3].

From a total of more than 130 articles published in NHJ in 2012, we selected as best basic article: Recurrent and founder mutations in the Netherlands: the cardiac phenotype of DES founder mutations p.S13F and p.N342D. Authors: van Spaendonck-Zwarts KY, van der Kooi AJ, van den Berg MP, Ippel EF, Boven LG, Yee WC, van den Wijngaard A, Brusse E, Hoogendijk JE, Doevendans PA, de Visser M, Jongbloed JD, van Tintelen JP. Neth Heart J. 2012 May;20(5):219–28. doi: 10.1007/s12471-011-0233-y [4]. This article shows that desmin-related myopathy may occur as an apparently isolated cardiac disorder. The cardiac phenotypes of the founder mutations p.S13F and p.N342D are characterised by cardiac conduction disease and cardiomyopathy, often with right ventricular involvement. This national multi-centre study has been cited by Acta Neuropathologica and the American Journal of Cardiology.

We selected as best clinical article: Left ventricular endocardial pacing in cardiac resynchronisation therapy: Moving from bench to bedside. Authors: Bracke FA, van Gelder BM, Dekker LR, Houthuizen P, Ter Woorst JF, Teijink JA. Neth Heart J. 2012 Mar;20(3):118–24. doi: 10.1007/s12471-011-0210-5 [5]. This single-centre study from Eindhoven (involving three departments of the Catharina Hospital) shows that endovascular implants in patients eligible for cardiac resynchronisation therapy should remain reserved for severely symptomatic heart failure patients and patients at high surgical risk of failed coronary sinus implantation. The article has been cited by Pace-Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, Heart Rhythm and Europace.

At the annual spring meeting of the NVVC, held at Congress Centre De Leeuwenhorst, Noordwijkerhout on 4 April 2013, the first authors of both articles received an educational grant provided by the NVVC. We would like to congratulate the authors on their awards and thank them for sending their excellent work to NHJ. With the Durrer Prize, we hope again to stimulate young investigators to send their best papers to NHJ.

E.E. van der Wall, Editor-in-Chief, Netherlands Heart Journal

M.J. Schalij, Past-Chairman of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology

V.A.W.M. Umans, Chairman of the Netherlands Society of Cardiology