EURECA-m is a thriving working group.  We are producing valuable documents that help setting the stage of European Cardiovascular and Renal Medicine.   This  year  we  published  7  well pondered    documents in Kidney International  Supplements as well as  in Nature  Reviews Nephrology (to download the PDF files, please refer to the box below); furthermore,  three  new ones   will be soon submitted to major nephrology Journals.
Furthermore, EURECA-m established a research registry aimed at systematically collecting Echocardiography, lung ultrasound, Pulse Wave velocity and 24 ambulatory BP monitoring data in prevalent and incident dialysis patients.

This  Registry has  already enrolled over  100 patients  and  we  foresee  to have over  1000 patients on file within one year:  this  will make our Registry  the largest repository of  detailed   studies of the  cardiovascular  system  in kidney  failure  established so far.   Our Registry is  the only one,  in our field,  to  guarantee  appropriate   validation  of Echocardiography, lung ultrasound,  pulse  wave velocity and  24 ambulatory monitoring data  by  specific and outstanding validation centres in Paris (PWV, Gerard London), Milan (24ABPM, Gianfranco Parati) and Pisa  (EchoCG and  lung ultrasound, Rosa Sicari and Luna Gargani).  The  experimental phase of this Registry is now  almost complete  and  at the beginning of  2012  we  will open the Registry  to all Renal  Units, with a  main interest in this  area, in Europe. 
The benefits achieved by participating to this Registry are multiple: 
1) Centres that will provide valid data will receive a quality certification by EURECA-m.
2) These  same centres  will be  included in the list of Units working for  the Registry in all the publications  based on shared  data by EURECA-m  and, depending on the intensity and the quality of the participation to the Registry, at least one investigator  of  Unites that  will  enroll at least  70 patients,   will  be involved in the writing of the actual manuscripts related  with EURECA-m Registry data whenever patients of his/her center will be considered for analysis.
3) When the Registry will have sufficient data, participating Centers (with more than 70 patients) will have the opportunity to submit projects using the Registry Database. 
Our Registry is unique in joining continental gathering of fundamental, functional and imaging techniques coupled with detailed information of the clinical phenotypes, thereby providing a tremendous Clinical Research opportunity.
Another very positive news is that, in the occasion of the ERA-EDTA 2011 Research Programme Call, the ERA-EDTA Scientific Advisory Board has shortlisted the clinical trial submitted by the EURECA-m Board.  The trial is aimed at testing a treatment policy of LV systolic dysfunction   guided by a new, simple, reproducible and easily available technique measuring lung water. If awarded, this clinical trial will be the first that will test a treatment policy based on a biomarker (lung water as estimated by ultrasound) in kidney failure patients.