On World Heart Day, marked each year on 29 September, HRH Crown Princess Katherine is appealing to the people to take special care of their health, focusing on their hearts and the entire cardiovascular system, also expressing her concerns regarding the high number of people who suffer from cardiac diseases in Serbia. Her Royal Highness on this occasion also shares an example of a great contribution of Serbian medicine to the world-wide fight against cardiovascular diseases, emphasizing once again that our country has some of the best experts on a global level.
„I find it deeply troubling to see the statistics showing how many lives are lost each day, both in our country and around the world, to cardiovascular diseases. Many of these deaths are preventable through healthier lifestyle choices. It’s crucial that we follow medical guidance, adopt our doctors’ recommendations, and make meaningful changes to habits that put our heart health at risk. This includes quitting smoking, managing high blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol, and becoming more physically active in our daily routines.
The heart has always been a universal symbol of love. But for that love to remain strong and be shared with the people who matter most — our friends, families, and loved ones — our hearts must stay healthy and resilient, we must protect and cherish them. With every beat, the heart carries us forward on the incredible journey of life, and preserving life is what matters the most”, stated HRH Crown Princess Katherine on this occasion.
Having in mind the highly important topic of cardiology and hearth health to which this day is dedicated, TRH Crown Prince Alxander and Crown Princess Katherine would like to share the news of an important achievement of a Member of the Royal Medical Board, Professor Dr Arsen Ristić, long time contributor to the Crown Princess’ efforts to provide support the Healthcare System of Serbia, who is among the authors of the first European Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Muscle Inflammation. Details available in the further text about this contribution to European and world medicine add up to the fact which the Crown Princess often emphasizes – that Serbia has great experts who contribute so much to the medicine as a science, and that the exchange of knowledge in medicine is crucial for both the wellbeing of the patients, and the improvement of the practices that will lead to more effective treatments and better outcomes of the illnesses in the future.
At the European Society of Cardiology Congress recently held in Madrid, the first international Guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of myocarditis and pericarditis were presented as a revolutionary, paradigm-shifting perspective that will change the therapeutic approach of inflammation of the heart muscle and pericardium. Among the authors of this extremely important document is Professor Dr. Arsen Ristić, cardiologist at the University Clinical Center of Serbia and Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Belgrade, representing Serbia at the pinnacle of world cardiology.
The participation of Prof. Ristić in creating the Guidelines is an exceptional recognition, considering that very few top experts are invited to contribute to these publications during their career. These are already the fifth Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology in which Prof. Ristic is an author, and the third dedicated to pericardial diseases (2004, 2015, and 2025), confirming his high position among the world-leading experts in this field for more than two decades. The document was published in the leading scientific journal of the European Society of Cardiology (European Heart Journal), as well as in the form of an educational presentation, a pocket edition, and Guidelines for patients.
Inflammatory diseases of the heart muscle and pericardial sac are a common cause of chest pain, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death in young people and athletes, especially those prone to repeated viral infections. If the inflammatory process is uncontrolled, it can lead to the accumulation of a large amount of fluid in the pericardial sac and tamponade of the heart, which can result in death from cardiac arrest.
The diagnosis and treatment of these diseases have been significantly improved in the last decades through the integration of laboratory findings, heart ultrasound examination, and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as with an urgent analysis of heart muscle biopsy samples. These important tests can accurately demonstrate whether the cause of inflammation is a viral infection, an autoimmune disease, or an inherited heart muscle disease. For patients with fulminant or recurrent inflammations, new powerful medications are now available that can very quickly treat the cause of the disease and alleviate patients’ symptoms.
About the holiday – World Heart Day is observed and celebrated annually on 29 September, with the aim of increasing awareness of cardiovascular diseases and how to control them to lower and negate their global impact. The international holiday was established by the World Heart Federation in collaboration with the World Health Organization. This year’s slogan for the marking of this Day is “Don’t Miss a Beat”. As stated by the World Heart Federation, each year, cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims over 20.5 million lives. Up to 80% of premature CVD deaths are preventable through affordable access to care, early screening, and more opportunities to make healthy choices in nutrition and stay active.
According to data from the Institute for Public Health of Serbia “Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut” from 2023, almost 50% (49.8%) of all causes of death in Serbia were the result of cardiovascular diseases, or, when put into actual numbers, about 50,000 people died in Serbia as a result of cardiovascular diseases in 2023.
HRH Crown Princess Katherine’s Foundation has made many important donations to hospitals in Serbia to support the work of their cardiovascular departments, and it will continue in the future. For many years, it has also been supporting young doctors in cardiovascular education in the world’s best hospitals. In addition, education in this field of medicine was also an important part of the Serbian Diaspora Medical Conferences, which have been organized annually for the last 14 years. Developing inter-expert cooperation and exchange of knowledge and experience between Serbian doctors and medical experts abroad and foreign institutions that represent a high level of medical science is a pillar of a quality health system in Serbia.
Biography of Professor Dr. Arsen Ristic – Prof. Arsen Ristic is one of the most successful Serbian cardiologists in the last three decades. He graduated from the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade in 1993 with an average grade of 10 and received his doctorate from the prestigious Medical Faculty of the University of Marburg, one of the oldest and most respected in Germany. During the 2.5 years spent in Marburg as a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and the World Cardiology Federation (1999-2002), Prof. Ristić designed and verified new techniques for the drainage of pericardial effusion and intrapericardial therapy. These results were the reason for over 130 invited lectures around the world that Professor Ristic has given. Prof. Ristic, Belgrade, and Serbia were awarded with the organization of two European conferences on myocardial and pericardial diseases in 2018 and 2023. In addition, Prof. Ristić served as co-president of the scientific program at the European and World Congress on Heart Failure, which was attended by 5,500 physicians from all over the world in May in Belgrade.
Prof. Arsen Ristić is the author of 175 publications in scientific journals, 77 of which are in the top M21a category, with a cumulative impact factor of 1833 and 25,600 citations. The US website expertscape.com ranked him in 2021 as the third expert in the world on pericardiocentesis based on numerous highly regarded publications.
All the most exceptional novelties in this field were presented at the “Synergy” conference on September 26 this year in Belgrade. Prof. Arsen Ristić, together with Prof. Massimo Imazio, shared the latest achievements in the diagnosis and treatment of inflammation of the heart. This event represents a significant opportunity for Serbian doctors to get acquainted with the latest European standards in diagnosis and treatment, directly from the authors of the Guidelines. The fact that such an expert meeting is being held in Belgrade only four weeks after the world premiere in Madrid corroborates the position of Serbian cardiology on the international scene.