The articles collected in this volume largely arose from two related meetings held last spring. The first was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 11-12, 1997 and was titled Nuevos Avances en el Fenomeno de Isquemia y Reperfusion (New Advances in the Phenomenon of Ischemia and Reperfusion). The second meeting took place in Stara Lesna located in the High Tatras Mountains of the Slovak Republic on June 27-30, 1997. Both meetings were sponsored by several organizations including the International Society and Federation of Cardiology, the International Society for Heart Research and The American Heart Association.