Screening, stem cells, biomarkers and hypercholesterolemia: our first original clinical research

摘要

It's been a busy few months since we launched our call for original clinical research. What started as an encouraging trickle has become a steady flow of outstanding submissions. Without further ado, we're delighted to introduce our first original papers, now available online.Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a huge problem, with low-income countries being the worst affected. The true prevalence of RHD is, however, uncertain; only screening can indicate true disease burden. In our first paper, Jonathan Carapetis and his research group document the highest echocardiographically confirmed prevalence of RHD reported to date-3.3% of children surveyed had definite RHD.