This issue of Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, Guest Edited by Dr. Mark B. Stephens, is devoted to Cardiovascular Disease. Articles in this issue include: State of the Heart: Overview of disease burden of cardiovascular disease from an epidemiologic perspective; Heavy Heart: Economic burden of heart disease with projections/implications for impact on the health care system; Prevention of Heart Disease; Coronary Artery Disease; Congestive Heart Failure; Valvular Heart Disease; Peripheral Vascular Disease; The Athlete's Heart and Sudden Death; Metabolic Syndrome: systems thinking in heart disease; Women and Heart Disease; Heart Disease in Children; and Cardiac Imaging.