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 Fen├│meno de Isquemia y Reperfusi├│n (New Advances in the Phenomenon of Ischemia and Reperfusion). The second meeting took place in Star├б Lesn├б 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.