The Italian Study Group on Cardiomyopathies organized in Florence in April 1997, eight years after the first successful meeting, the second international symposium devoted to "Advances in Cardiomyopathies." In these years exceptional progress has been made in the field of heart muscle diseases, in clinical research as well as in molecular biology, molec ular genetics., pathophysiology and treatment. Many of these advances were presented and discussed in Florence by a distinguished team of international experts. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was addressed in ten papers; in the first one Seidman...