Following its tradition of promoting novel areas of scienti?c discourse, the Ernst Schering Research Foundation (ESRF) hosted this workshop on chronic viral and in?ammatory cardiomyopathy. In late October 2004, scientists from Canada, Germany, the Georgian Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden, and the United States ga- ered in Berlin to discuss their concepts, hypotheses, and latest ?ndings on myocarditis and cardiomyopathy. This expert meeting was held in cooperation with the German - search Foundation, which in the same year had supported transregional collaborative research activities entitled ¿In?ammatory Cardiomyo- thy ¿ Molecular Pathogenesis and Therapy.¿ Organizing the workshop, our efforts strove to render tighter the network between the distinct disciplines involved in cardiomyopathy - search, building bridges between its molecular, pathogenetic, diagnostic, and therapeutic determinants. It all began as a story of a neighborhood, and we would like to express our hope that this long-term project, which will require much and - tensive cooperative work among the participants, will evolve to become a story of a good neighborhood.

Chronic Viral and Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy.- Overview on Chronic Viral Cardiomyopathy/Chronic Myocarditis.- Unsolved Medical Issues and New Targets for Further Research in Viral Myocarditis and Dilated Cardiomyopathy.- Viruses.- Frontiers in Viral Diagnostics.- Invited for Debate: Is Virus Persistence a Determinant for Disease Progression?.- Parvovirus B19: The Causative Agent of Dilated Cardiomyopathy or a Harmless Passenger of the Human Myocard?.- Parvovirus B19: A New Emerging Pathogenic Agent of Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy.- Role of Hepatitis C Virus in Cardiomyopathies.- Immunity and Autoimmunity.- Recent Insights into the Role of Host Innate and Acquired Immunity Responses.- The Significance of Autoimmunity in Myocarditis.- The Roles of Immunity and Autoimmunity in Chronic Heart Failure.- Clinical Implications of Anti-cardiac Immunity in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.- Cardiac Remodeling.- Inflammation and Cardiac Remodeling During Viral Myocarditis.- Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy: There Is a Specific Matrix Destruction in the Course of the Disease.- Invited for Debate: Is There a Virus-Specific Matrix Destruction in the Course of Disease in Dilated Cardiomyopathy?.- Diagnosis and Treatment.- New Non-invasive Approaches for the Diagnosis of Cardiomyopathy: Magnetic Resonance Imaging.- New Therapeutics Targets in Chronic Viral Cardiomyopathy.- Myocarditis and Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy: Histomorphological Diagnosis.- Anti-viral Treatment in Patients with Virus-Induced Cardiomyopathy.- Immunosuppressive Treatment of Chronic Non-viral Myocarditis.- Immunoadsorption in Dilated Cardiomyopathy.