Clinical trials update from the World Congress of Cardiology 2006.

This article provides information on trials presented at the World Congress of Cardiology 2006 (WCC-2006). This was a joint meeting of the European Society of Cardiology and the World Heart Federation. Heart failure trials dealing with understudied patient populations (e.g., the elderly), trials of new treatments (i.e., immune modulation therapy) and new intervention strategies (i.e., the Cardiac Insufficiency Bisoprol-III study) or patient monitoring (the Home or Hospital Heart Failure study) were presented at this meeting. Among the studies about coronary artery disease treatment, WCC-2006 saw the presentation of the landmark meta-analyses regarding the incidence of late events in patients receiving drug-eluting stents. The main results of these meta-analyses, and the associated debate, are summarised in this article. Finally, the results of other trials of percutaneous patent foramen ovale closure and atrial fibrillation treatment in elderly patients are summarised.