When I was asked some years ago by the editors of the Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology to edit a new volume on Antianginal Drugs, I agreed on the condition that, in accordance with my scientific background, primary emphasis be given to clinical pharmacology and therapeutics. It soon turned out that, due to rapid developments in this field, nothing of the previous volume on Antianginal Drugs by Charlier (Vol. 31, 1971) could be retained apart from its basic idea of devoting considerable space to methodology. Since editors must operate within certain limits, I had to abstain from dealing with acute myocardial infarction in detail despite the well-known overlap between unstable angina, the preinfarction syndrome, and acute myocardial infarction. It was only possible for acute myocardial infarction and the concept of reduction of infarct size to be briefly discussed within the chapter on pathophysiology of acute coronary insufficiency. The chapter on invasive methods provided an opportunity to touch on new approaches to early intervention in acute myocardial infarction. Here, intracoronary streptokinase therapy and PTCA are considered, again with attention to the overlap between mechanical and pharmacological interventions.

This book comprises the essential records from a Boerhaave course given in June 1971 for specialists in cardiology and other fields of internal medicine interested in the subject of quantitation in cardiology. It is evident that in the wide field of medicine, and particularly in cardiology, there is a growing need for exact and detailed information in conjunction with existing diag nostic methods. This is apparent in the greater precision in anatomical and haemodynamic details required by the thoracic surgeon as the number of available heart operations gradually increases. In retrospect it is hardly surprising that the high initial mortality after the introduction of each operation depended to a large extent upon the degree of accuracy with which the diagnosis was made. Another urgent need for precise and quantitative information became apparent when monitoring of high-risk patients, in order to forestall compli cations and/or death, became routine. The same applies for the diagnostic procedures used to estimate the patient's chances of surviving an operation and/or rehabilitation after a serious incident, such as myocardial infarction. In these fields there is a vast amount of data to be handled and - in modern diagnostic procedures - it must be processed so rapidly that the human mind cannot suffice and computer equipment has becomeindispensable."

Recent technological developments have brought long-term ambulatory electro cardiography to the front of clinical cardiology. Its application for solving clinical problems potentially related to cardiac arrhythmias is rapidly increasing. In the meantime, the method has found widespread use in the identification of patients at risk for cardiac death as well as in the assessment of therapeutic interventions. It was the purpose of this symposium to bring together an international group of authorities in order both to provide an overall view of the field and to discuss critically the value of clinical, epidemiological and research applications of long term ambulatory electrocardiography in the light of new concepts and recent advances. The first section of this volume discusses the methodology and the performance criteria of the equipment and analysis systems. In the second section, the potentials and problems encountered in the use of long-term ambulatory electrocardiography for solving clinical questions and for predicting the occurrence of clinically important arrhythmias are extensively as continuous ST segment monitoring, blood dealt with. New applications such pressure measurement and other physiologic parameters are also included. Prevalence variability and prognostic aspects of ventricular arrhythmias, both in normals and in patients with cardiac disease, are the subject of section 3. The last section provides a critical review of the use of the method for the evaluation of therapeutic interventions with drugs. The editors feel that this volume represents the 'state of the art' in this newly important area of clinical cardiology."