Footnotes

• European National Society Cardiovascular Journals Editors, see Appendix for complete affiliations Anesti Kondili MD, Djamaleddine Nibouche MD, Karlen Adamyan MD, Kurt Huber MD, Hugo Ector MD, Izet Masic MD, Rumiana Tarnovska MD, Mario Ivanusa MD, Vladimír Staněk MD, Jørgen Videbæk MD, Mohamed Hamed MD, Alexandras Laucevicius MD, Pirjo Mustonen MD, Jean-Yves Artigou MD, Ariel Cohen MD, Mamanti Rogava MD, Michael Böhm MD, Eckart Fleck MD, Gerd Heusch MD, Rainer Klawki MD, Panos Vardas MD, Christodoulos Stefanadis MD, József Tenczer MD, Massimo Chiariello MD, Aleksandras Laucevicius MD, Joseph Elias MD, Aleksandras Laucevicius MD, Halima Benjelloun MD, Olaf Rødevand MD, Piotr Kułakowski MD, Edvard Apetrei MD, Victor A Lusov MD, Rafael G Oganov MD, Velibor Obradovic MD, Gabriel Kamensky MD, Miran F Kenda MD, Christer Höglund MD, Thomas F Lüscher MD, René Lerch MD, Moufid Jokhadar MD, Habib Haouala MD, Vedat Sansoy MD, Valentin Shumakov MD, Adam Timmis MD.

• Competing interests: None declared.

• This manuscript will be simultaneously published in all National Societies Journal that consented to publication. *All Editors-in-Chief of the National Society of Cardiovascular Journals listed in the Appendix should be considered as co-authors of this manuscript.