Four years ago when the first European Symposium on the relationship between alterations of blood clotting mechanisms and atherosclerosis was organized, we asked ourselves which would be the best way to obtain both scientific and practical contributions. We have been interested in cardiovascular diseases for several years now and have therefore focused our attention on the "container" (Le. the blood vessel) rather than on the "contents" (Le. the various components of blood) as considered only from a haemodynamic point of view. In recent years correlations were found between alterations of vascular wall and alteration of coagulative, fibrinolytic, and plate­ let factors as well as of haemorheological phenomena in the thrombo­ genic evolution of atherosclerotic lesions. A close cooperation between cardiologists and workers interested in atherosclerosis and thrombosis is therefore necessary. We think that the most appropriate approach to the various problems concerning correlations between thrombogenic and atherosclerotic lesions is co-operation between experts in these different fields of research. We thus decided to organize the 2nd Symposium taking into account the great progress achieved in this field during the past few years, and hope that discussions on diagnostic and therapeutical perspec'­ tives will yield useful elements both for the cardiologist and for the cardiologist and for the general practitioner.