Each volume of "Advances in Pharmacology" provides a collection of reviews on timely topics. Volume 31 deals with the mechanisms of anesthetic actions under normal conditions as well as pathophysiologic states.;It updates anaesthesiologists and basic scientists on new aspects of anaesthesia and cardiovascular disease as it pertains not only to the mechanisms of anesthetic action in the normal muscle, but also in the presence of a variety of conditions and diseases such as cardiac ischemia, vascular disorders and cerebral injury.;The book gives the basic cardiac effects of anaesthetic along with information on the normal and ischemic processes controlling or affecting cardiac function, and contains the most recent experimental observations and hypotheses with emphasis on cardiovascular effects of anaesthetics and the mechanisms that may be involved in normal and pathophysiological states. It discusses the effects of anaethesia on reflex regulation along with the major circulatory effects of chronic hypertension, and presents a wide variety of the latest methodologies, from human studies to subcellular anaesthetic targets. The text also provides original presentations and interpretat