In Groningen there has been a continuous investigation of hypertrophic cardio- myopathy for almost twenty years. Members of this working-group have tried to study the many aspects of this intriguing disease, and it is in this volume that they present their recent results and current concepts (chapters 2, 3, 5 and 6). A contribution from the Dutch interuniversity Institute of Cardiology presenting a detailed account of evaluation by means of radionuclide techniques completes the non-invasive picture of cardiomyopathies (chapter 4). On July 6th, 1984, a symposium entitled ‘Recent views on hypertrophic cardio- myopathy’ was held at the University Hospital Groningen. The main reason to organize this meeting was the retirement of one of our working-group members, namely E. van der Wall, as head of the cardiological department. The speakers at the symposium presented their lectures based on their contributions to this book. It is an honour for us to have obtained their full cooperation for this book and for the symposium. We are very grateful that this Groningen manifestation could include the outstanding contributions of several well-known experts from abroad. We there- fore thank our colleagues Profs. Epstein, Goodwin, Kaltenbach and Schulte for their spontaneous and valuable cooperation (chapters 1, 7, 8 and 9). Thanks to their efforts especially, this book has acquired the international character that the study of this subject deserves.