This book is written in a quick reference style to help clinical and basic researchers, as well as graduate students, in the understanding of hemodynamics. Recent dev- opments in genetics and molecular biology on the one hand, and new noninvasive measurement techniques on the other hand, make it possible to measure and und- stand the hemodynamics of heart and vessels better than ever before. Hemodynamics makes it possible to characterize, in a quantitative way, and even with noninvasive techniques the function of the heart and the arterial system, separately and in c- bination, thereby producing information about what genetic and molecular processes are of importance for cardiovascular function. We have made the layout of the book such that it gives a succinct overview of individual topics in short chapters Therefore every chapter starts with a “box” c- taining a figure and caption, describing the main aspects of the subject. It is often sufficient to study the contents of this box alone to obtain this basic information, and therefore it is not necessary to read the book from cover to cover.
