New perspectives: systems medicine in cardiovascular disease

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Innovative approaches to increase the understanding of the underpinnings of CVD promise to enhance CVD risk assessment and might pave the way to tailored therapies. Within the last years, systems medicine has emerged as a novel tool to study the genetic, molecular and physiological interactions.

CONCLUSION: In this review, we provide an overview of the current molecular-experimental, epidemiological and bioinformatical tools applied in systems medicine in the cardiovascular field. We will discuss the status and challenges in implementing interdisciplinary systems medicine approaches in CVD.