ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world, and its malign impact in the economically developing countries is being felt with increasing force. With no less momentum, cardiovascular research is yielding new perspectives and techniques of investigation and treatment, so that even in the seven years since the first edition of this book, there have been substantial shifts in the patterns of heart disease; in particular, there has been a sustained fall in the mortality from acute coronary syndromes, but an inexorable rise in heart failure.
