Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) cause over 4 million deaths in Europe each year and mass disability: within the coming decades the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) estimate is expected to rise from a loss of 85 million DALYs in 1990 to a loss of 150 million DALYs globally in 2020. Moreover, patient numbers are expected to rise rapidly in the next decades, due to an ageing society such that th ...