This volume covers advances in the field of respiratory diseases, reflecting the recent and dramatic expansion of knowledge regarding the determinants of respiratory health, screening tests for early pulmonary lesions, therapeutic interventions for respiratory infections and strategies for prevention. It examines indoor and outdoor environmental sources of respiratory diseases, including levels of pollutants, air conditioning, indoor air quality and airborne allergens. Exploring ways to promote the respiratory health of both the individual and the community, Prevention of Respiratory Diseases covers areas including: the role of most of the known extrinsic and potentially preventable determinants in respiratory diseases; developments in epidemiology and children's respiratory health; the relationship between respiratory diseases and occupations; individual sensitivity or susceptibility to the effects of air pollutants; genetic, epidemiological and immunological markers, markers for bronchial cancer and the protease-antiprotease system; and the connection between tobacco smoke and respiratory diseases.;This resource is intended for pulmonologists, clinical immunologists and allergists, oncologists, physiologists, infectious disease specialists, respiratory therapists and graduate and medical school students in these disciplines.

Eighteen contributions consider various aspects of pulmonary vascular control and the pulmonary vasculature's response to injury and disease. They discuss recent advances in molecular biology to cell proliferation, interactions between the endothelium and smooth muscle, and the etiologies of various

This volume is a collection of the most significant contributions to the 4th International Symposium on MULTIPLE RISK FACTORS IN CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: STRATEGIES OF PREVENTION OF CORONARY HEART DISEASE, CARDIAC F AlLURE, AND STROKE held in Washington, D. C. in April 1997. The meeting focused on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and their interactions. The need for this symposium is based on the epidemiological, clinical, and biological evidence that individuals from industrialized countries often possess two or more risk factors which synergistically increase the global risk profile. This has become more evident in recent years with the increase in life expectancy of populations in the industrialized countries. The evidence that a combination of risk factors confers a very high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, is of pivotal interest in the process of detection of patients who will benefit the most from pharmacological treatment. Many recent epidemiological data identifying the intrinsic and environmental factors contributing to the development of atherosclerosis are discussed. These results, in parallel with basic and clinical research, underline atherosclerosis as a complex and multifactorial process involving the influences of lipids, including lipoprotein subfractions, blood pressure rheologic forces, carbohydrate tolerance, and thrombogenic factors, including fibrinogen, tissue factor, PAl-I, and homocysteine. Furthennore, the risk associated with anyone of these risk factors varies widely depending on the level of the associated atherogenic risk factors. Hyper cholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia, for instance, are more common than would be expected by chance among hypertensive patients.

This book includes the most significant contributions of the 3rd International Symposium on MULTIPLE RISK FACTORS IN CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE held in Florence, Italy, July 6-9, 1994. The meeting focused on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and their interactions. The need for this symposium is based on the epidemiological evidence that individuals from industrialized countries often possess two or more risk factors which synergistically increase the global risk profile. This has become more evident in recent years with the increase in life expectancy of the general population. The evidence that in high risk patients, a combination of risk factors often is detected, is highlighted in these Proceedings. Many recent epidemiological data identifYing the intrinsic and environmental factors contributing to the development of atherosclerosis are discussed. These results, in parallel with basic and clinical research, underline how atherosclerosis is a complex and multifactorial process involving the influences of lipids, including lipoprotein subfractions, blood pressure, rheologic forces, carbohydrate tolerance, and thrombogenic factors. Furthermore, the risk associated with anyone of these risk factors varies widely depending on level of the associated atherogenic risk factors.

This book includes the most significant contributions of the First International Symposium on "Multiple risk factors in cardiovascular disease", chaired by Professors A. V. Chobanian (Boston), A. M. Gotto Jr. (Houston), c. Lenfant (Bethesda), R. Paoletti and A. Zanchetti (Milan), held in Washington DC, 10-12 December 1990, which focused on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and their interactions. The need for this symposium is based on the epidemiological evidence that individuals from industrialized countries often possess two or more risk factors which synergically increase the global risk profile. The evidence that isolated vascular risk factors are not commonly found in high risk patients but more often a combination of risk factors are detected, is highlighted. Many recent epidemiological data identifying the intrinsic and environ mental factors contributing to the development of atherosclerosis are discussed. These results, in parallel to basic and clinical research, underline how atherosclerosis is a complex and multifac torial process involving the influences of lipid deposition, blood pressure, rheologic forces, carbohydrate tolerance, and thrombogenic factors (fibrinogen and platelets). Atherosclerosis is markedly accelerated by other risk factors, more so in the presence of concomitant hypercholes terolemia, hypertension, diabetes, upper body obesity. Furthermore, the risk associated with anyone of these risk factors varies widely depending on level of the associated atherogenic risk factors.

The issue of interaction of risk factors in cardiovascular disease is timely and of clinical relevance. This book is a collection of the scientific contributions to the 4th International Symposium on Multiple Risk Factors and Cardiovascular Disease: Strategies of Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease, Cardiac Failure, and Stroke, and addresses the role of simultaneous risk factors in patients. Because patients with two or more risk factors are at very high risk for developing cardiovascular diseases, special care should be taken in the choice of appropriate therapeutic intervention.

Risk factors are also discussed from the point of view of the biochemist and the pharmacologist by addressing the mechanisms underlying the onset of hypertension, hyperlipoproteinemia, hypercoagulability, and the possibility of therapeutic intervention.

This book will therefore be of value to the biochemist, pharmacologist, and clinical pharmacologist, as well as to specialists in the field of cardiovascular medicine in order to keep up-to-date with current knowledge in this fast moving field of research.

Patients with two or more risk factors have a very high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. It follows that the strategy for the intervention of multiple risk factors is in fact of paramount relevance in detecting patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease requiring therapeutic intervention. The text also discusses risk factors from the point of view of biochemists and pharmacologists by addressing the mechanisms underlying the onset of hypertension, hyperlipoproteinaemia, hypercoagulability and the possibility of therapeutic intervention.