2018 ESC Guidelines for the management of cardiovascular diseases during pregnancy : the task force on the management of cardiovascular diseases during pregnancy of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Abstract

Guidelines summarize and evaluate available evidence with the aim of assisting health professionals in selecting the best management strategies for an individual patient with a given condition. Guidelines and their recommendations should facilitate decision making of health professionals in their daily practice. However, the final decisions concerning an individual patient must be made by the responsible health professional( s) in consultation with the patient and caregiver as appropriate. A great number of guidelines have been issued in recent years by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), as well as by other societies and organisations. Because of the impact on clinical practice, quality criteria for the development of guidelines have been established in order to make all decisions transparent to the user. The recommendations for formulating and issuing ESC Guidelines can be found on the ESC website (http://www.escardio.org/Guidelines- &-Education/Clinical-Practice-Guidelines/Guidelines-development/ Writing-ESC-Guidelines). ESC Guidelines represent the official position of the ESC on a given topic and are regularly updated. [excerpt from the Preamble]