Welcome to the latest issue of ARTERY Research. This issue follows what has been a highly successful ARTERY meeting in Cambridge. Not only were we blessed with good weather, but the number of abstracts submitted was the highest yet. Furthermore, the high standard of the submitted abstracts made the task of the reviewers in selecting Oral Presentations an extremely difficult one.

2009 has seen a number of developments in the field from outside Europe. Most notably the ‘Pulse of Asia’ held its first meeting in Daegu, Korea on 17 - 18 April. This meeting was very successful and well attended and I am therefore delighted to have the opportunity to publish the abstracts from the ‘Pulse of Asia’ meeting in the current issue of ARTERY Research.

2009 has not been without its less happy moments and it is with great sadness that I report the death of Tom Pickering from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, a great researcher and a strong supporter of arterial stiffness research in the USA. Closer to home, 2009 also saw the death of John Feeley known to everybody in ARTERY. John was a wonderful man who was, as many of you will know, a loyal supporter of ARTERY attending all our meetings and making regular contributions. He will be deeply missed.

Looking to the future, ARTERY has survived the extremely uncertain financial circumstances precipitated by the recent credit crisis in good shape and with your continued support we hope to grow even stronger in 2010. I am confident that ARTERY 10 in Verona next year will be a great success and I look forward to seeing you all there.