Cellular and Molecular Pathogenesis

From The Critics

Reviewer: Francis H. Straus II, MD, MS(University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine)
Description: This book contains conceptual discussions of basic disease mechanisms, covering tissue injury, immunology, inflammation, wound healing, vascular disease, environmental pathology, neoplasia, and genetic diseases.
Purpose: The book is generated to serve as an introductory pathology text for beginning graduate students in pathology. The emphasis is on mechanisms of pathogenesis, not descriptive pathology. It is not a reference text but more a teaching text where a course might be built around it.
Audience: The proposed audience is beginning graduate students in pathology or related graduate fields that require an understanding of pathologic processes; medical students or paramedical students might also find this text useful.
Features: In the chapter organization there is subdivision into sections separated by bold headings and italicized important words. Tables are rare and scattered. Black-and-white line drawings are quite crudely drawn. There are almost no photomicrographs incorporated into the text. Chapters end with a "summary and perspective" section that could be developed more completely. Suggested readings at the chapter end are just that, not indexed into the text. These references generally reflect a two-year publication time.
Assessment: There may be a niche for this text with its strong emphasis on pathogenic mechanisms of disease, but existing texts such as Robbins' Pathologic Basis of Disease covers pathogenesis in its early chapters, is far more comprehensive and readable, and has far superior illustrations. The individual chapters in this book give the impression of being a group of review articles rather than an integrated text. Academic pathology teachers and students could use this teaching text, but it is not particularly useful for libraries or practicing pathologists.

Francis H. Straus II

This book contains conceptual discussions of basic disease mechanisms, covering tissue injury, immunology, inflammation, wound healing, vascular disease, environmental pathology, neoplasia, and genetic diseases. The book is generated to serve as an introductory pathology text for beginning graduate students in pathology. The emphasis is on mechanisms of pathogenesis, not descriptive pathology. It is not a reference text but more a teaching text where a course might be built around it. The proposed audience is beginning graduate students in pathology or related graduate fields that require an understanding of pathologic processes; medical students or paramedical students might also find this text useful. In the chapter organization there is subdivision into sections separated by bold headings and italicized important words. Tables are rare and scattered. Black-and-white line drawings are quite crudely drawn. There are almost no photomicrographs incorporated into the text. Chapters end with a summary and perspective section that could be developed more completely. Suggested readings at the chapter end are just that, not indexed into the text. These references generally reflect a two-year publication time. There may be a niche for this text with its strong emphasis on pathogenic mechanisms of disease, but existing texts such as Robbins' Pathologic Basis of Disease covers pathogenesis in its early chapters, is far more comprehensive and readable, and has far superior illustrations. The individual chapters in this book give the impression of being a group of review articles rather than an integrated text. Academic pathology teachers and students could use this teaching text, but it is notparticularly useful for libraries or practicing pathologists.

2 Stars from Doody