Pathophysiology of Heart Disease

It is indeed ironical that in the absence of a complete knowledge of Pathophysiology, clinical cardiologists are left with no choice but to do the best they can to help the patient with the armamentarium of drugs at their disposal. But nothing could be further from truth than to treat the diagnosed end point of a disease process without a full understanding of its patho­ physiology. This point was eloquently made by Dr. Arnold Katz in his Presidential Address (Chapter 1) at the 8th Annual Meeting of the American Section of the International Society for Heart Research held in Winnipeg, Canada, July 8-11, 1986. This volume represents a part of the scientific proceedings of this Meeting. From a reading of this treatise it will become evident that discoveries of newer scientific facts as well as a better understanding of pathophysiology are continuously influencing/ improving our therapeutic approaches in modern medicine. In this book, latest biochemical, physiological and pharmacological findings on different experimental models such as Myocaridal hypertrophy, Hypertension and heart failure, Diabetes, Cardio­ myopathies and Cardiac function in shock are described by internationally recognised experts. Hopefully information presented here will provide another building block to the edifice of Science of Cardiology which we all are trying to create. Acknowledgements We are grateful to the following Agencies and Foundations for their generous financial support of the Symposium, which formed the basis of this book. A. Major Contributors: 1. Manitoba Heart Foundation 2. Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute 3. Squibb Canada, Inc.