Platelets have a central role in thrombosis, including in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndromes. Therapies that target the platelet are, therefore, a vital component of our armamentarium against ischemic cardiovascular events. Antiplatelet therapy is a fast-moving area of research that is of interest not only to cardiologists, but also to general internists, surgeons, medical geneticists, as well as policy and decision makers. This focus issue features five Review articles and a Perspectives opinion piece, written by leading experts, which cover the current major themes in the field.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a global epidemic. Patients with this chronic disease—which they typically have for 20–40 years—have an increased risk of cardiovascular events. During the past few years, advances in drug development and the completion of several large-scale, randomized controlled trials have helped to provide strategies to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in this group of patients. This collection of articles from Nature Reviews CardiologyandNature Reviews Endocrinologyprovides a state-of-the-art overview of current management strategies to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and will be a welcome resource to researchers and clinicians alike.

Hypertension is a major, worldwide health problem owing to its high prevalence and association with increased morbidity and mortality. This collection of articles from Nature Reviews Cardiology,Nature Reviews NephrologyandNature Reviews Endocrinologycomprises a selection of 11 Reviews that discuss advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of hypertension and of the assessment, management and consequences of prehypertension and hypertension, as well as future directions for prevention and treatment.

Dyslipidemia is a major cause of coronary heart disease (CHD)—the most-common cause of death in the Western world—and is characterized by increased levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and/or triglycerides, decreased levels of HDL cholesterol, modified function of lipid molecules, or a combination of some or all of these factors. Although mortality rates from CHD have reduced substantially over the past few decades, owing largely to the use of LDL-lowering statins, further strategies for reducing CHD risk are still urgently needed. Given the considerable global impact of dylipidemia, and the accumulating data on risk prediction and mechanisms of disease that have generated multiple potential targets for treatment, we have commissioned a group of articles that review the latest advances in risk assessment, biological mechanisms of disease protection, and diagnosis and management of this disorder.

Early detection of risk factors and signs of cardiovascular disease is an important component of cardiovascular-health promotion. Nature Reviews Cardiology is thus holding a session on this topic at the World Heart Federation's 2010 World Congress of Cardiology in Beijing, China. Review articles that accompany the five talks in this session are published in the June 2010 issue of Nature Reviews Cardiology.

This Focus issue on atrial fibrillation (AF) contains three specially commissioned Review articles, written by leaders in the field, on promising new developments in catheter ablation, atrial antiarrhythmic drug therapy, and anticoagulants for stroke prevention in patients with AF. The issue also features News & Views commentaries, a Research Highlight, and an Editorial, discussing important advances in AF research that have been reported in the past few months.

Over the past decade the focus of imaging techniques has shifted from anatomical and physiological assessment, to visualization of physiological and pathophysiological processes at the cellular and molecular levels. This series of articles examines the exciting new field of molecular imaging in cardiovascular medicine. Articles will cover every aspect from methods to applications of the in vivo characterization and measurement of biological processes.