Abstract
Pulmonary circulation is the flow of blood from the right ventricle through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, where carbon dioxide (CO2) is exchanged for oxygen (O2), and back through the pulmonary vein to the left atrium. The pulmonary vasculature includes the arteries from the main pulmonary to the precapillary arterioles, the capillaries, and the vein from the capillary to the left atrium. – Wikipedia.
The pulmonary circulation, once referred to as the lesser circulation, is now a circulatory system that medical and research professionals (as well as patients) can no longer ignore. Based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) annual report in 2010, pulmonary vascular disease (e.g., pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism) affects more than two million people in the world. The survival from idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH), a rare form of pulmonary hypertension that predominantly affects younger women, is similar to cancer and is worse than many ischemic cardiovascular diseases.
In PubMed, “pulmonary vascular disease” generates almost 90,000 publications, while “pulmonary artery” generates more than 62,000 hits. “Hypertension” yields 321,623 publications, of which 38,486 are related to pulmonary hypertension. “Artery” generates 597,907 hits, of which 78,734 publications are related to “pulmonary artery.” “Heart” generates 956,653 publications, of which there are 153,194 publications related to “left heart” and 73,071 publications related to “right heart.” These data indicate that approximately 15% of the publications in the cardiovascular field are related to pulmonary circulation.
There are many journals currently available in the fields of cardiology, cardiovascular physiology, cardiovascular disease, systemic circulation and systemic hypertension, as well as lung biology, respiratory physiology and pathophysiology. For many years, physicians, investigators and trainees with an interest in the field of pulmonary circulation and pulmonary vascular disease published their work in general medical journals (e.g., Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature Medicine, New England Journal Medicine and Lancet), general heart and circulation journals (e.g., Circulation, Circulation Research, American Journal of Physiology Heart and Circulatory Physiology), general lung and respiratory journals (e.g., Chest, European Respiratory Journal, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, American Journal of Respiratory Cellular and Molecular Medicine) and pharmacological and physiological journals (e.g., American Journal of Physiology Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Journal of Applied Physiology, American Journal of Pathology and British Journal of Pharmacology). We should be rightly proud of the great and extensive contributions made during the last century by physicians and investigators in the pulmonary circulation field and published in the prestigious journals mentioned above. However, journals specifically aiming at the pulmonary circulation and pulmonary vascular diseases are not available at present.
After discussion with many colleagues in the field, there was widely held enthusiasm for a new and specialized journal for: (a) physicians, surgeons and practitioners in pulmonary and critical care medicine, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, heart/lung transplant surgery, pediatric pulmonology and pediatric cardiology, whose clinical responsibilities include taking care of patients with pulmonary vascular diseases; (b) basic science investigators whose primary research interests center on pulmonary circulation, pulmonary vascular physiology and pathophysiology, pulmonary vascular diseases, lung vascular biology and acute lung injury; and (c) cardiopulmonary subspecialty fellows, postdoctoral research fellows, medical and graduate students who are interested in developing an academic career in the clinical management of patients with pulmonary vascular disease and in clinical, translational and basic research on pulmonary circulation. Providing a high-quality venue for these investigators and clinicians to publish articles relevant to the pulmonary circulation is the major goal for this new journal, Pulmonary Circulation.
As evidenced in this current issue, Pulmonary Circulation will publish (i) original articles in basic and clinical research, (ii) review articles on clinical and research topics, (iii) progress in clinical trials, (iv) new techniques and technology and (v) case reports. Pulmonary Circulation will publish articles on the topics related to (a) molecular and cell biology, structure and morphology, physiology and pathophysiology and translational research topics of the pulmonary circulation, (b) the state-of-the-art techniques and their potential applications in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary vascular diseases, (c) clinical diagnosis and treatment and surgical interventions of pulmonary vascular diseases and (d) techniques and technology applied to research on pulmonary vasculature and to clinical management of pulmonary vascular diseases.
We believe that Pulmonary Circulation will appeal to two main audiences. The primary group is the physicians, surgeons, clinical scientists, basic science researchers and cardiopulmonary and critical care practitioners, whose clinical activity and research interests are primarily focused on pulmonary vascular disorders. In addition, postdoctoral fellows, medical students and graduate students will comprise another major audience for the journal. This is also a journal for libraries in medical schools and universities that contain biomedical science departments, and also in veterinary medical schools. A second group is the investigators in pharmaceutical companies who conduct clinical and basic research on developing diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for patients with pulmonary vascular disease and other cardiopulmonary diseases.
The journal is sponsored and published by the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI, www.pvri.info), an international and not-for-profit medical research organization devoted to increasing awareness and knowledge of pulmonary vascular disease. The journal is printed and distributed by Medknow Publishing Ltd. (Mumbai, India). We sincerely appreciate the support and effort put forth by the colleagues at PVRI and Medknow to achieve the goal; it would not have happened without the support and encouragement from the members and fellows of PVRI and the staff of Medknow.
The editorial board of Pulmonary Circulation is composed of three editors-in-chief (Jason Yuan, Nick Morrell and Harikrishnan S.), a senior editor (Ghazwan Butrous), an executive editor (Harikrishnan S), 14 editors (Kurt Stenmark, Ken Bloch, Stephen Archer, Marlene Rabinovitch, Skip Garcia, Stuart Rich, Martin Wilkins, Ardi Ghofrani, Candice Fike, Werner Seeger, Glennis Haworth, Patty Thistlethwaite, Chen Wang and Antonio Lopes), five scientific advisory board members (Bob Grover, Charles Hales, Joe Loscalzo, John West and Magdi Yacoub) and 170 members from countries across the globe – the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Kyrgyz Republic, Spain, Ireland, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, Japan, Korea, China, Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, there are two editorial assistants, Nikki Krol and Karen Gordon, who work in the journal's editorial offices in London, UK and Chicago, USA, respectively.
We truly appreciate the support and enthusiasm of all the members on the editorial board for establishing this journal, and the fantastic encouragement of our colleagues in the field. We look forward to working with you all to make the new journal a communication medium that you and your colleagues would like to use to convey your research findings, scientific perspectives and clinical experience with the physicians and investigators in the world.
In order to establish a journal with high impact and broad visibility, the quality of the papers it publishes and the reputation of its authors (laboratories and research groups) are the key, especially in the journal's early days. Therefore, we strongly urge you to submit your next manuscript to Pulmonary Circulation. All manuscripts, of course, will go through the peer-review process; the editorial office will make sure to process your manuscript as fast as possible. We will try our best to make Pulmonary Circulation an interesting and informative journal that you would like to read, to cite and to recommend to your students and colleagues.
“Those who know don't lecture; those who lecture don't know… The wise are heard through their silence, always self-full through selflessness,” Lao Tzu said more than two thousands of years ago. It is time for us to be silent so we can hear from you, the good, the bad and either or neither.