Essentials of Rubin's Pathology

From The Critics

Reviewer: Nathan Cuka, B.S.(University of Kansas Medical Center)
Description: This distillation of the 5th edition of Rubin's Pathology: Clinicopathologic Foundations of Medicine, 5th Edition, Rubin and Strayer (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008), contains well organized and concise, high yield didactic data accompanied by plentiful micrographs, photographs of gross pathology specimens, and drawings. The previous edition of Essentials was published four years ago.
Purpose: Because the purpose is to provide fundamental concepts of pathology to medical students, the book deals with the causes, pathogenesis, and morphologic as well clinical aspects of most important human diseases. Given the daunting size of the corpus of knowledge that greets the student of pathology, this is a commendable goal. This book accomplishes its goal through the generous use of illuminating color photographs and conceptual drawings and excellent organization and layout.
Audience: The primary audience is medical students, but the book will be suitable for other healthcare students who are studying preclinical sciences. All these students will find enough basic pathology in this book, but they will also be exposed to related concepts of molecular, cellular, and tissue based biology. The book is written at a level appropriate for beginners, but it also is concise and complete enough to serve as good review for advanced students or residents. Dr. Rubin is a leading authority on the subject of pathology.
Features: The first nine of the book's 30 chapters are dedicated to general pathology, with the remainder covering systemic pathology. The chapters are of very readable lengths with clear distinctions between sections and topics. The book does a good job of preserving the excellent organization of the original textbook by clearly delineating areas including pathogenesis, pathology, and clinical features of diseases. Use of different fonts and text to emphasize important points is well done. The book does an excellent job of providing information through useful illustrations, color slides, and summary tables. One point in particular that separates this from other pathology books is its explicit treatment of obesity, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome (chapter 22). Given the increasing prevalence of these conditions facing healthcare workers, this is an excellent idea. The separation of amyloid disorders (chapter 23) is likewise unique to this book and although this chapter is short, it will likely expand as more information is gained regarding these diseases. However, the chapter on cytopathology (chapter 30) seems out of place in a book with a target audience of pathology students in healthcare. While important in the diagnosis of certain diseases, this technique is better discussed in the context of those particular diseases. The chapter on the pancreas (chapter 15) is well done with concise information on the primary diseases of this organ. Similarly, the chapter on the respiratory system (chapter 12) does a superior job of explaining the pathogenesis of several disorders as well as graphically comparing them to each other and non-diseased states. A surprise in the section on lung pathology is the absence of any mention of the category of restrictive lung diseases, a discussion that appears in many other pathology and respiratory physiology texts. While individual diseases from this taxonomy are covered, a more generalized discussion of restrictive lung diseases and comparison to obstructive diseases would strengthen this chapter.
Assessment: This is an excellent resource for learning high yield facts of general and systemic pathology. Its systemic and hierarchical organization is remarkable and the book will be attractive and useful to most medical students who decide to use it. It will teach them more pathology than they will need for the USMLE 1, but even more importantly, it will help them to mentally frame the different diseases in a structured manner as they learn these facts for life. The updates to the science of pathology over the years justify this new edition. I predict that this edition will be as popular as the previous ones.

Francis H. Straus II

Similar to most pathology texts, this second edition is divided into chapters first covering principles of pathology (inflammation, neoplasia, etc.) and then systemic pathology (gastrointestinal tract, breast, etc.) The first edition was published in 1990. This text is presented as a concise selective reference and review for students of pathology, omitting descriptions of normal anatomy and physiology and discussion of rarer diseases included in the companion larger text by the same authors. What is included is more concentrated, using many of the same color diagrams and photomicrographs. Like its larger companion volume, this text is aimed at the beginning pathology student or the more advanced practitioner who seeks in a reference a concise straightforward presentation of pathology. The presentation emphasizes pattern recognition useful for many readers. The main authors and contributors are all highly credible in their fields. The strength of this book is its excellent color diagrams and photomicrographs emphasizing graphic pattern recognition. Another good feature is the constant definitions highlighted by bullets. There are many paragraph headings dividing the text into digestible fragments. This text does not have references. The index is complete and useful in focusing on a single subject. This second edition follows the generation of the second edition of Pathology. It is a more concise version and should be useful for review or a more limited main text. It contains most of the well-presented illustrative material, which is its great value. It could be more useful to the paramedical pathology student who does not wish the extra detail of the main text. Ido believe this is a valuable contribution to the pathology learning scene that should be available in bookstores and libraries.

Booknews

An abridgement of the authors' Pathology intended to serve as a concise and selective reference and review for students. It presents the key concepts of the evolution and expression of disease and assigns priorities based upon the clinical importance and heuristic relevance of individual diseases. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

3 Stars from Doody