Book excerpt: Despite remarkable therapeutic achievements in medicine, cardiovascular diseases remain the major cause of death in the new millennium. The cardiovascular disease continuum starts with risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and lipid disorders, leading to coronary artery disease or left ventricular hypertrophy. Left ventricular dysfunction and remodelling follow after initial myocardial damage (e.g. myocardial infarction), finally leading to the development of heart failure. This book gives an overview of the effects of antiadrenergic treatment in the different stages of the cardiovascular continuum, with a particular emphasis on heart failure, authored by a faculty of leading international clinical cardiologists.