It has become a tradition that the
Netherlands Heart Journal publishes case histories in the combined July/August issue.
1 Although not fully recognised, case histories may constitute the true background for systematic or hypothesis-based research. The accurate observation and description of a single patient case may form the basis for further exploration of the observed phenomenon, thus opening new fields of interest. The role of case histories is therefore to expand our knowledge based on incidental experiences. In this respect, we cite VandenBroucke who stated that
there is no other way but a series of cases to bring a potentially new disease to the attention of the medical public. 2 …
