Editors: Marta C. Cohen, and Irene Scheimberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press – 513 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

This book has been developed for use by pediatric pathologists, including those in training, as well as for general pathologists who encounter pediatric cases. Pediatric pathology is an essential and needed subspecialty, the editors write, because of the incidence, rarity and peculiarity of many conditions and diseases among children.

In some areas of the United States and Europe, and in many other countries, there are few pediatric hospitals or specialist centers for children where particular pediatric disease experts practice. This book serves to provide knowledge and insight in such situations where it is needed.

Forty-one specialists in various fields related to laboratory medicine, microbiology, pathology, and pediatrics, principally from Europe, the United States and other places around the world authored the 15 chapters of this book. The contributors hail from the following 11 countries arranged alphabetically: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.

This volume is a practical bench-book, wherein experts and specialists in particular diseases share their knowledge and insight. We list below the chapters of this book which serves to provide you an overview of what you will find in it:

  1. Skin
  2. Gastrointestinal Tract
  3. Hepatobiliary System and Pancreas
  4. Head and Neck
  5. Respiratory System
  6. Endocrine
  7. Lymph Nodes, Bone Marrow, and Immuno-deficiencies
  8. Kidneys and Lower Urinary Tract
  9. Reproductive System
  10. Breast
  11. Soft-Tissue Tumors in Young Patients
  12. Bone and Joint Lesions
  13. Neuropathology
  14. Introduction to Small Round-Cell Tumors
  15. Molecular Genetics and Diagnostic Techniques

Coverage of subject matter is not only quite extensive but also intensive. As an example, let us look at the topics and discussions found in chapter 2 entitled Gastrointestinal Tract.  We name below the parts of this system in the human body, with names of the main conditions below each one. We mention the number of types of each condition, but do not name them in order to not get too detailed in this book review.  

  • Esophagus
  1. Congenital malformations
  2. Esophagitis: infectious and non-infectious types, with latter consisting of three subtypes: eosinophilic, lymphocytic, and caustic esophagitis
  3. Strictures
  4. Barrett esophagus (BE)
  5. Esophageal malignancies
  • Stomach
  1. Congenital malformations: pyloric stenosis (PS), and heterotopic (ectopic) pancreas
  2. Gastritis: infectious gastritis; and non-infectious gastritis, consisting of seven types, namely: lymphatic gastritis, vasculitis, autoimmune gastritis, atrophic gastritis, eosinophilic gastritis (EG), chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), chemical gastropathy, and Crohn’s disease
  3. Tumors: polyps (six types named), gastric neoplasms, hereditary diffuse gastric carcinoma (HDGC), gastrointestinal stomal tumor (GIST)
  • Small Bowel
  1. Congenital malformations: atresia and stenosis, Meckel’s diverticulum, duplication cysts
  2. Protracted diarrhea of infancy: neuro-endocrine cell dysgenesis, microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), tufting enteropathy, phenotypic diarrhea: trichohepatoenteric syndrome, autoimmune and immunodeficiency associated enteropathies, and other causes of protracted diarrhea in infancy
  3. Celiac Disease
  4. Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)
  5. Volvulus
  6. Polyps and tumors: sporadic polyps and polyposis syndromes, hamartomatous polyps and polyposis syndromes (four types named), adenomyomatous polyps, adenomatous polyps, inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, carcinoid/neuroendocrine tumors, and lymphoid polyps and tumors (two types named)
  • Colon
  1. Congenital malformations: atresia and stenosis
  2. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction: Hirschsprung’s disease (HD), intestinal neuronal dysplasia (IND), intestinal hypoganglionosis, and visceral myopathies
  3. Colitis: eosinophilic conditions affecting the colon, acute infectious colitis, microscopic colitis (MS), and neutropenic enterocolitis (NE)
  4. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s Disease (CD), indeterminate colitis: IBD unclassifiable
  5. Polyps and tumors: polyps and polyposis syndromes, malignant tumors (one type specified: colorectal adenocarcinoma

This is followed by a 10-page list of References at the end, giving the reader ample opportunities to study in depth any topic covered in this chapter. This is an excellent, amply-illustrated volume on pathology, particularly pediatric pathology, with chapters that have detailed coverage of topics and various subtopics within them as we show you above.

 

Editors:

Marta C. Cohen is Consultant Pediatric and Perinatal Histopathologist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at University of Sheffield in Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Irene Scheimberg is Consultant Pediatric and Perinatal Pathologist at Royal London Hospital, Barts NHS Health Trust; and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Barts Medical School, Queen Mary University in London, United Kingdom.