The Society for Heart and Vascular Metabolism (SHVM) has held its fifth annual conference in Maastricht, The Netherlands, from June 18 to 20, 2007.

This meeting followed the successful previous conferences held in Freiburg, Germany (2003), Montebello, Canada (2004), Oxford, UK (2005), and Semiahmoo/Seattle, USA (2006).

The overall theme of the Maastricht conference was New developments in cardiac lipid metabolism: from substrate to signaling. The most recent basic and clinical advances in the study of cardiac lipid metabolism in health and disease were presented and discussed by eminent scientists from around the world. The participants originated from 13 countries and 4 continents, reflecting the world-wide and growing interest in metabolic aspects of cardiac function and cardiac disease.

The scientific program of the Maastricht meeting comprised sessions on energy metabolism in the normal and diabetic heart, signaling pathways controlling cardiac metabolism, vascular metabolism and inflammation, cardiac metabolism in hypertrophy and the failing heart, uncoupling proteins and heart function, and clinical diagnostics and therapeutic effects.

The present focused issue of Cardiovascular Drugs & Therapy is a collection of selected papers presented during the conference and the abstracts of the short-oral and poster presentations. Together, they provide insight into our current understanding and most recent developments of cardiac metabolism in health and disease.