Participation in athletics at both the recreational and competitive levels has grown enormously over the last decade, and now involves a substantial segment of the population of many countries, particularly those in Europe and North America. This change in the life-style of many individuals has been accompanied by the desire and necessity on the part of physicians to define the consequences of chronic athletic training and competition to the participant. Coincident with the of public interest in sporting competition has been the evolution and growth development of new non-invasive...

The introduction of quantitative Doppler echocardiography gave rise to explo- sive interest in the application of this method in clinical cardiology. However, before cardiologists could fully validate its clinical utility, they were confronted with a further development, namely color-coded Doppler flow imaging. This new technique allows a comprehensive study of the direction, velocity, uniformity and timing of intracardiac blood flow, while simultaneously revealing cardiac struc- tures and their movement. 'Color Doppler' facilitates the diagnosis of a variety of cardiac conditions, and an...

The task the editors have set themselves is to survey the field of clinical hemorheology from basic principles to up-to-date research. It is only in a new science like this that it is possible to span the whole field in a book of this size. Hemorheology, as a new approach to the study and management of a wide range of circulatory diseases, is now beginning to appear with increasing frequency in general as well as specialized medical journals. Hemorheology is also just beginning to creep into the undergraduate medical curriculum. Therefore, the majority of graduate doctors are unequipped to...

In recent years considerable progress and new developments in diagnostic and interventional cardiology have been observed, such as balloon angioplasty of coronary artery stenoses, reperfusion techniques in acute myocardial infarction, new pacing, and cardioversion-defibrillation techniques in ventricular tachyar- rhythmias. On 5-8 May, 1985, an international symposium on 'Invasive Cardio- vascular Therapy' was held in Cologne, which provided a survey on the experi- ment~l and routine therapeutic measures presently available and practiced in cardiovascular medicine. This volume is based on the...

Since the introduction of coronary angioplasty in 1977, this procedure has gained a steadily increasing position in the treatment of coronary artery obstmction. From the available evidence it can be estimated, that this thera- peutic tool will get even more additional momentum of many ten-thousands of patients to be treated in the next few years, due to a growing fraction of patients who are candidates for this intervention. Information about the indications, benefits and risks of coronary angioplasty is accumulating rapidly in addition to publications about refinements of the technique...

This book represents the proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Body Surface Mapping (BSM) held at Nijmegen; the Netherlands, from 11th to 13th of June, 1985, under the auspices of the International Council on Electrocardiology. This meeting brought together a group of international scientists en- gaged in the field of the study of electrocardiographic body surface po- tentials. Previous meetings of this kind took place at Burlington, Vt; U.S.A. in 1972, organized by Rush and Lepeschkin, and in 1982 at Tokyo or- ganized by Yamada, Harumi and Musha. The special aims of this 3rd...

This book is designed as a definitive report on current capabilities of ultrasound imaging and Doppler evaluation of the cerebral circulation, both extracranial and intracranial. The basic chapters are directed to the beginner in ultrasound and hemodynamics and for the expert in updating newly available modalities and techniques new to the field. The ultrasonic and hemodynamic principles are presented for physicians and vascular technologists in a practical way to avoid unnecessary mathematics. The aim is for maximum clinical utilization so that available equipment may be used more...

In Groningen there has been a continuous investigation of hypertrophic cardio myopathy for almost twenty years. Members of this working-group have tried to study the many aspects of this intriguing disease, and it is in this volume that they present their recent results and current concepts (chapters 2, 3, 5 and 6). A contribution from the Dutch interuniversity Institute of Cardiology presenting a detailed account of evaluation by means of radionuclide techniques completes the non-invasive picture of cardiomyopathies (chapter 4). On July 6th, 1984, a symposium entitled 'Recent views on...

The tandem pace of medical knowledge and prevention of ischaemic heart disease over the past 50 years is testimony to the effectiveness of a combination of massive scientific research, continuous transfer of the results to medical practice, community actions and population aware ness. The death rate from coronary heart disease in the United States rose 20% from 1950 to 1963, when a dramatic and steady downward inflection began, arriving today at a rate over 50% lower. Numerous factors have contributed to this success. By 1950 lipoproteins had just been discovered, but a decade later a great...