Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is our pleasure to cordially invite you to take part in the European Conference on Myocardial, Pericardial Disease, and Left Ventricular Dysfunction that will be held in Belgrade, Serbia, on October 6-8, 2006. This is an official meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Working group on Myocardial and pericardial Diseases under the patronage of European League Against the Rheumatism (EULAR) and in cooperation with the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.

This is the third Conference of the Working group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases of the European Society of Cardiology. The first two were with lot of success held in Venice, Italy, in February 2005 and 2006 mostly concentrated on hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy with special sessions on arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and amyloidosis. The Belgrade meeting will be more clinically oriented and concentrated on myocarditis, inflammatory and viral heart disease, pericardial diseases, and left ventricular dysfunction, also including one-day symposia on cardiovascular manifestations in autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

In addition to the main program, 12 meet-the-experts session are organized including presentations and scientific confrontation of international experts and the local speakers and discussion panel. In addition, the program includes following remarkable events:

• Moderated video presentations of interventional and surgical procedures.
• Interdisciplinary workshops and a workshop "The art of scientific writing"
• Medical art exhibition - "Struggle of the failing heart".

All participants will receive a Conference Syllabus including abstracts of lectures, oral, and poster presentations, but also a copy of a supplement of Rheumatology (Oxford) journal dedicated to the conference and the articles related to the presentations from the conference that will be published in Herz-Cardiovascular Medicine. All conference participants are also invited to submit original contributions to the European Journal of Heart Failure. If accepted after the peer review process, these papers will be published under the special heading of the Conference.

Three best original abstracts of authors less than 40 years of age will be awarded with a "Young investigators award" diploma and 500 EUR each, in categories:

1. Myocardial and pericardial diseases,
2. Heart failure, and
3. Cardiovascular manifestations in autoimmune rheumatic disease.

We are looking forward to cordially welcoming you in Belgrade in October, and we hope that we will have a very successful Conference.