Practical cardiac electrophysiology

Couple of years back, I had the opportunity to reviewMayo Clinic Electrophysiology Manual edited by Prof. Samuel J Asirvatham from the Mayo Clinic Scientific Press. Now I am extremely glad to review the first Indian EP textbook edited by Sam and Kartikeya Bhargava Practical Cardiac Electrophysiology from the leading Indian medical publisher Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd. Though, it is a book from an Indian publisher, it is truly the combined effort of an international consortium of authors. The editors have compiled excellent articles from an array of internationally acclaimed authors in the field of cardiac electrophysiology from eleven countries, representing four continents. Moreover, we have forewords from two luminaries in cardiac electrophysiology: Prof. George Klein and Prof. Eric N Prystowsky. An editorial summary at the end of each chapter is a highlight of this book which places the work of different authors in the correct perspective and links between related chapters for better learning. Practical Cardiac Electrophysiology runs into seven hundred odd pages in 47 chapters, divided into six sections, ranging from introduction to cardiac electrophysiology, fundamentals of cardiac anatomy, imaging, mapping and ablation to advances in ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias. Initial section deals with indications, hardware setup, catheter placement and technical details of electrograms as well as basics of electrophysiological measurements, programmed stimulation and ablation. Excellent anatomical pictures, histological sections and catheter position radiographs are very useful in understanding the basics of mapping and ablation. Section on imaging covers magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomographic reconstructions and intracardiac echo images. Chapter on three-dimensional (3-D) mapping is amply illustrated and