Editors: Alberto M. Marchevsky, MD; and Mark R. Wick, MD
Publisher: Cambridge University Press – 348 pages, with 650 images
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani
This is a book that is useful to oncologists, pathologists, pulmonologists, radiologists, and specialists in thoracic diseases and disorders, as well as to surgeons. Its focus is the mediastinum, an anatomical area in the chest where a large number and variety of cancers, tumors, and other abnormal conditions, diseases and disorders are discovered, and treated.
When you view the anatomy of the mediastinum – a region in the chest located between the two pleural cavities – you can see within it the heart, the great vessels, the sympathetic nerves and ganglia, the trachea, the thymus gland, the thoracic duct, lymphatic ducts, and lymph nodes. The mediastinum has an anterior, middle, and posterior portion when viewed laterally from left to right, as well as a superior portion located just below the base of the neck.
Seventeen pathologists in various forms of practice including general, anatomic, autopsy, clinical and surgical pathology, as well as specialists in cardiac, mediastinal, pulmonary, and thoracic pathology, dermatopathology and radiology, authored the 17 chapters (shown below as an overview for you) that constitute this book. All are physicians and many are professors at medical schools and hospitals in the United States, except one in Japan.
- The mediastinum
- Imaging of the mediastinum
- Inflammatory diseases of the mediastinum
- The thymus gland
- Pathology of non-neoplastic conditions of the thymus
- Low-grade, intermediate-grade malignant epithelial tumors of the thymus: thymomas
- High-grade malignant epithelial tumors of the thymus: primary thymic carcinomas
- Neuroendocrine carcinomas of the thymus
- Germ cell of the mediastinum
- Parathyroid lesions, paragangliomas, thyroid tumors, and pleomorphic adenomas of the mediastinum
- Hematopoietic neoplasms of the mediastinum
- Cystic lesions of the mediastinum
- Mesenchymal tumors of the mediastinum
- Tell me what you need, so I’ll know what to say
- Clinical pathology of disorders of the mediastinum
- Surgical pathology of the heart
- Morphologic alterations of the serous membranes of the mediastinum in reactive and neoplastic settings
The two editors name above and other pathologists who wrote the chapters in this text have many years of experience diagnosing and treating many types of conditions in the mediastinum. To name a few, they are: cardiac lesions, germ cell tumors, intra-thoracic lesions, lymphomas, malignant mesotheliomas, soft tissue lesions, thymic carcinomas (including thymic neuroendocrine carcinomas and other thymic neoplasms) and thymomas. Other abnormalities are named above.
This extensive review of mediastinal pathology includes detailed reviews of the anatomy of the mediastinum and its various structures, and descriptions of diagnoses of various mediastinal diseases. The embryology, anatomy and pathophysiology of the thymus gland – a central organ of the immune system – are discussed, and descriptions of the various non-neoplastic conditions that arise in the thymus are also provided, with excellent illustrations.
The pathologic and clinical features are discussed in this book, and diagnostic criteria for various diseases are presented. Information from recent laboratory tests is also given, as well as on using immunostatins and other tests in diagnosing disease.
The editors write that a good portion of the book is focused on the pathology of thymomas, thymic carcinomas, and other thymic neoplasms. This is because of their association with the neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis, and numerous other para-neoplastic conditions.
Materials in the chapters are presented in an organized fashion with introductory paragraphs, followed by detailed textual discussions of topics and subtopics alongside full-color micrographs, regular photographs, radiographs, and other types of images such as charts, diagrams, sketches, and tables with data. Last but not the least, to help you look deeper into certain topics, long lists of References are provided at the end of each chapter.
This is an excellent book on the pathology of diseases in the mediastinum and their features, with a lot of useful information on diagnosis. As a bonus to purchasers, downloadable copies of the 650 images used in this book are provided in a compact disk attached on the inside back cover of this book.
Editors:
Alberto M. Marchevsky, MD is Director of Pulmonary and Mediastinal Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; and Professor of Pathology at David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California.
Mark R. Wick, MD is Professor of Pathology in the Department of Pathology at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia.
