The Paavo Nurmi Foundation was established in 1968 to promote the research of heart and vascular diseases and public welfare in Finland. As part of its mission, the foundation has organized international scientific symposia in Finland every few years from 1968, bringing together top-class scientists from all over the world to share the most recent data and ideas on various cardiovascular fields. The title of the XVII Paavo Nurmi Symposium was ‘Future directions of hypertension – tailor-made diagnostics and treatment’. The meeting was held in Haikko Manor, Porvoo, on September 7 - 9, 2011.
This Supplement of Annals of Medicine includes minireviews based on presentations given at the symposium. The symposium was divided in five sessions with topics ‘From basics to novel aspects on therapeutics’, ‘Pathomechanisms of hypertension’, ‘Vascular tone and structure’, ‘Clinical hypertension’, and ‘Sodium from transport to storage’. We are very pleased that almost all presentations are covered in this Supplement.
On behalf of the organizing committee, we wish to thank the speakers and their co-workers for their excellent contributions at the symposium and in this Supplement. We believe that the symposium inspired all participants and extended our knowledge on the novel aspects of hypertension. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to the Paavo Nurmi Foundation for the generous financial support that made the symposium and this Supplement possible.
Funding Statement: The authors of the mini- review articles that appear in this supplement were invited to submit to the journal following presentations made at the XVII Paavo Nurmi Symposium. These mini-review articles have been peer-reviewed and revised according to Annals of Medicine's usual peer-review standards before being accepted for publication. The funding of this supplement was provided by the Paavo Nurmi Foundation.
Declaration of interest: IP has received funding for clinical research on haemodynamics of hypertension from the Paavo Nurmi Foundation. TH reports no conflicts of interest.