LAUSR

In parallel with China’s economic boom, the lifestyle of Chinese people has dramatically changed. China has entered the society of aging, and the risk factors, including obesity, high-salt diet, overnutrition, sedentary behaviors, lack of physical activity, and air pollution, became more prevalent. Cardiovascular diseases have become a main threat to the public health and economic burden and the leading cause of mobility and mortality in China (Online Figure I). Here, we reviewed the history of vascular medicine, current status of research in vascular biology, medicine and funding opportunities, and challenges in future. As early as 2000 years ago, the Chinese people proposed in the Inner Canon of Huangdi that meridians are used to transport blood, working as blood vessels. After the introduction of Western medicine to China, the research on modern vascular medicine began to emerge but developed at a slow pace. In 1934, Prof Zhengang Lin from Peking Medical University published Cirrhosis of Cardiac Arteriosclerosis and Pathology of Syphilis and the Formation of Myocardial Infarction and Its Clinical Significance , which are the earliest monographs on atherosclerosis from the Chinese medical community. The first conference specifically focused on cardiovascular disease was held in 1959. In 1966, Prof Yingkai Wu, a pioneer cardiologist in China, headed the first study for the prevention and control of cardiovascular disease in Shijingshan District, Beijing, China, creating the Shougang model for China’s prevention and control of chronic diseases. After a decade of Cultural Revolution in the 1970s in China, the scientific researches and academic activities gradually recovered. Under the leadership of Prof Wu, the Chinese Society of Cardiology, a branch society affiliated to Chinese Medical Association was initiated in 1978. In 1982, a branch society of cardiovascular research in Chinese Association of Pathophysiology was established. Since then, dozens of societies of basic and clinical …