Dear Readers,

Since a pandemic of SARS2-COVID-19 has emerged on December 2019, it continues affecting more people worldwide and straining healthcare and relevant resources globally.  We salute all our colleagues, healthcare workers working on frontlines of the fight against pandemics and pay tribute to all colleagues, healthcare workers and first responders who lost their lives stopping spread of infection, saving and caring for patients. 

This is a novel disease without yet definite cure, and limited evidence and our knowledge on this disease are evolving on daily basis.   It is characterized not only by involvement of respiratory system but also cardiovascular and other systems that might be complicated by multiple organ failure (1-5). Although it might sound too simplified, it should be emphasized that cardiovascular system is of several-fold concern because of: ACE2 receptors (entry route for virus?) are expressed also in myocardium, not only lung and other organs, and there is involvement of vasculature (4, 6, 7); development of myocardial and vascular injury, and thromboembolic complications  (1, 4, 8-10); role of pre-existing cardiovascular comorbidities (1, 4, 9) and complications of specific and  antiviral therapies (9, 11, 12).

In this issue of the journal you can find two editorials on situation with COVID-19 in Kyrgyz Republic (3),  COVID-19 and cardiovascular system (4), and a rare case report on cardiovascular complication  of antiviral therapy in a patient with COVID-19 (12).

We as editors of Heart, Vessels and Transplantation journal have made several arrangements regarding resources and editorial work during pandemics. We created the COVID-19 resources webpage where the latest updates on resources on management and treatment are  provided. We set as priority to evaluate manuscripts on COVID-19 and brought extension to duration of peer-review for authors and reviewers and editors, knowing they  might be involved in fight against COVID-19 pandemics.   

We would like to welcome our new editors: on cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary disease and pulmonary hypertension – Dr Baktybek  Kojonazarov from Gessen, Germany; on cardiovascular surgery - Dr Jeffrey Shuhaiber from Boston MA, USA; on cardiology and high-altitude medicine - Prof.  Akpay Sarybaev, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and on nuclear cardiology and cardiology - Dr Andrea Rocha de Lorenzo from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Our team of editors’ feels enriched with invaluable expertise of our new members. 

Gulmira Kudaiberdieva

Editor-in-Chief

Heart, Vessels and Transplantation

Peer-review: Internal

Conflict of interest: None to declare

Authorship: GK