F. Kruck It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the workshop on Natriuretic Hormone here in Bonn. For quite a long time we have been considering the possibility of assem- bling scientists who are concerned with and interested in the problem of a possible humoral natriuretic activity. Work has been done on this topic in different parts of the world, partially with different methods and sometimes also with different and contlict- ing results. And thus we thought it could be very beneficial to have personal discussions with all of you so as to reach a consensus of opinion on how studies should be contin- ued. In spite of the current fmancial shortCOmings, common to most of the countries you are living in, we felt it necessary to use all the money we were granted for our research work in clinicopharmacologic studies to organize this meeting. And so we did. Thanks to the help of different pharmaceutical companies we were able to defer the travel ex- penses and costs for hotel accomodation for the speakers. Thus this meeting is not going to be a luxurious one, but rather a meeting for working and especially for discussions. And now by way of opening this workshop, lowe you a few explanations.