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...