Welcome to the latest issue of Artery Research. In this issue we are publishing the first paper in a series of ‘How To’ articles.

Over the past few years an accumulation of data has demonstrated the value of a number of vascular parameters in risk stratification and prediction of cardiovascular outcome. These include aortic pulse wave velocity, wave reflection and central blood pressure. This has logically led to an ever-increasing availability of systems designed to assess these parameters in the research and clinical arenas. Although such expansion in the equipment industry is to be welcomed, it has led in some cases to information overload in terms of how best to assess these parameters in practice. This is especially true for researchers new to the field and clinicians anxious to improve the management of their patients. With this in mind, we are commissioning a number of articles by established experts in the appropriate field which aim to provide simple understandable guidance on how best to assess the relevant parameters. We begin in this issue with a review by Patrick Segers on how to assess wave reflection.

I hope that you will enjoy reading these articles and that they will prove useful. I welcome your feedback on how we can improve in the future in order to best serve your needs; be they research based or clinical.