Author: Steven E. Weinberger, Barbara A. Cockrill, and Jess Mandell
Publisher: Elsevier Saunders – 404 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani
Access to the text of this book is available by going to www.ExpertConsult.oom. Scratch off the Activation Code found on the Scratch-Off tab on the inside front cover of this book, enter it into the “Add a Title” box, click “Activate Now” and click the title under “My Titles.”
This book takes an integrated, comprehensive approach to diseases of the respiratory system, taking into account pathologic, physiologic, and radiologic factors.
The first edition of book was published more than a quarter century ago in 1986. Much has changed in that time and new information has been added in each of the five editions that followed.
The authors write that medical understanding of respiratory and related diseases has improved over the years; diagnostic tests have become more sophisticated; and the number and variety of therapies to fight pulmonary diseases has increased.
This book has become very popular not only in the United States and Canada but also in other countries. Some editions have been translated into the following languages: Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
The authors have taken extraordinary efforts to make the material well understood even by the beginning student of pulmonary medicine. They provide notes in the margins throughout the book. Among many other helpful tools they utilize to enable easier grasp of the material in this book are:
• Physiologic concepts
• Pathogenic and Pathophysiologic mechanisms
• Radiologic and pathologic correlates
The twenty-nine chapters of this book represent an extensive range of subjects in pulmonary medicine, from anatomy and physiology to presentation and evaluation of the patient with pulmonary disease to particular ailments. Among these are: airway diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), mediastinal and pleural diseases, parenchyma, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism and hypertension, respiratory failure, tuberculosis, and last but not the last, lung cancer.
Each chapter starts with a summary box that lays out the basic topics and subtopics covered, followed by sections of text with each of those topics and subtopics. Study aids such as charts, drawings, math formulas, notes in the margins, photos, and x-rays are presented. At the end of each chapter is a list of References for further study by the student or practicing physician.
Some useful reference information, practice tests and other tools are provided in the three Appendices of this book:
• Appendix A – Sample Problems Using Respiratory Equations
• Appendix B – Pulmonary Function Tests: Guidelines for Interpretation
• Appendix C – Arterial Blood Gases: Guidelines for Interpretation and Sample Problems
I also urge readers to go to www.ExpertConsult.com (instructions given above) and take advantage of the following:
• Author Audio Commentary on the contents covered in nine of the 29 chapters
• Videos on how to use: an inhaler, inhaler with a spacer, disc inhaler, egg inhaler and normal bronchioscopy
• Audios on various topics such as the various types inspiratory crackles, mild expiratory wheeze, pleural friction rub, normal voice sounds followed by egophony, and normal whispered sound followed by whispered pectoriloquy
• 200 case-based self-assessment questions
• Image Bank
• Fully-Searchable Text
This is an amazing information-packed, user-friendly book with many helpful features, practical learning tools, and self-assessment techniques.
Steven E. Weinberger, MD, FACP is executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American College of Physicians. He is an adjunct professor of medicine at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine in Philadelphia and senior lecturer at Harvard School of Medicine in Boston.
Barbara A, Cockrill, MD is affiliated with the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Jess Mandel, MD, FACP is professor of medicine and associate dean for undergraduate medical education at University of California San Diego School of Medicine in La Jolla, California.
