Publication of this second edition of Dr. Darwin Labarthe’s invaluable book, Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Global Challenge is most opportune: As Dr. Labarthe emphasizes, the CVD prevention effort at this juncture—50 years down the road—confronts both “. . . considerable challenges and immense opportunities . . . .” On the one hand, the CVD epidemic persists; on a global scale it is waxing—indeed a challenge. And the challenge holds also for countries like the United States, where epidemic CVD persists despite substantial declines in coronary/stroke death rates during the latter decades of the 20th century