Our research at the Freiburg Physiological Institute over the past 25 years has demonstrated that specific calcium antagonists interfere with all physiological and pathophysiological reactions involving the heart and vessels in which an elevated inflow of calcium ions across the potential-dependent slow membrane channels into the cells is a decisive factor. From the outset, our therapeutic interest has centred on the possibility of inhibiting excessively high levels of transmembrane cal cium influx and thereby reducing the pathogenic consequences of intra cellular calcium overload. For...