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.

A great deal of experimental, clinical and epidemiological data have been gathered to confirm the strict and causal correlation between plasma lipoproteins and coronary heart disease. However, as usually happens in research, many more interesting issues are being studied, opening new fields of research for the future. These new advances, together with the combined efforts of cell biologists and lipoprotein chemists, have set the pace for an exciting period of research and clinical applications of diets and drugs affecting plasma and cell lipids. This volume, which includes the work of many of the leading world labortories, represents an authoritative and up-to-date appraisal of the status of the art and a stimulus to future research at the laboratory and clinical level in a fascinating area of clinical and preventive medicine.