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The American Heart Association (AHA) has pro-
duced science consistently for over 75 years. And for
over 25 years, based on the best scientifi c medical
evidence, the AHA has produced guidelines with the
American College of Cardiology Foundation, as well
as scientifi c statements, with a direct interest in
ensuring that all patients receive a good quality stan-
dard of cardiovascular care. Thus, the AHA is con-
stantly looking for ways to improve adherence to
guidelines by caregivers since heart disease, stroke,^
and other cardiovascular diseases remain the No. 1
killer in^ the United States and a leading cause of
permanent disability worldwide [1].
Although adherence to guidelines should improve
patient care and outcomes, many studies have shown
that the standard of care as defi ned by guidelines and
statements does not suffi ciently reach patients [2–4].
Accordingly, our objective is to try to enhance edu-
cation of caregivers through this simple and
user-friendly, summarized and updated “The AHA
Guidelines and Scientifi c Statements Handbook” so
that they may easily adhere to it and fi nd it useful to
improve patient care and outcomes. Most of the
recent AHA guidelines and statements are summa-
rized and presented here, all in one text. We have also
asked authors to provide a “future directions” section
on each chapter, to expand upon recent trials and
research that might affect guidelines in the future.
When appropriate, a brief comparison to other
guidelines (usually from the European Society of
Cardiology) is also provided, indicated in purple text.
Furthermore, also refer to the website for this book,
http://www.Wiley.com/go/AHAGuidelineHandbook, as it
will be sequentially updated with the latest statements
and guideline news as well as providing succinct and
helpful bibliographies.
In terms of format, the ACC/AHA Task Force on
Practice Guidelines have established schema for clas-
sifi cation of recommendations and level of evidence.
This schema is summarized in the table on the facing
page, which also illustrates how the grading system
provides an estimate of the size of the treatment effect
and an estimate of the certainty of the treatment
effect. In trying to mimic the signifi cance of the green,
yellow and red lights that guide the circulation of the
vehicles, “The AHA Guidelines and Scientifi c State-
ments Handbook” also uses similar colors in its
recommendations. Thus, Class I or “must do” recom-
mendations are titled in green text; Class IIa and IIb
or respectively “it is appropriate” and “it is not inap-
propriate” recommendations are titled in yellow text;
and Class III or “must not do” recommendations are
titled in red. Also, within the context of a user-
friendly and practical format, searching at the index,
for example, for the word “angina,” automatically will
guide you to the various guidelines and statements
that deal with “angina.”
I cannot conclude this brief introduction without
expressing my sincere thanks to all of the authors of
the parent committees who, with their time and
effort, contributed to the original guidelines and
statements; and, of course, I am particularly grateful
to the authors of the handbook, who all served on
the parent committees and very generously contrib-
uted to this project by meeting a very tight schedule.
I warmly thank my collaborators at the American
Heart Association and Wiley-Blackwell for meeting
once a week in a conference call at 5.30 am , and
I am particularly grateful to Ms Heather Goodell,
Ms Kate Newell and Mr Oliver Walter. Finally, I
would like to express my deepest appreciation to the
American Heart Association for giving me the
opportunity to serve as Editor of this fi rst edition of
“The AHA Guidelines and Scientifi c Statements
Handbook”. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a
useful educational tool for the healthcare commu-
nity and, most importantly, for the promotion of
cardiovascular health in our patients.