Multiple Choice Questions in Human Physiology

This excellent atlas illustrates clearly the fact that in echocardiography, to a much greater extent than in electrocardiography, the knowledge and skill of the person making the recordings determines the usefulness of the recordings themselves. With poor recording technique vital information may be missed or misleading records obtained. This is rightly stressed at the beginning of Salcedo's Atlas of Echocardiography. Unfortunately the illustrations of records being made show the patient lying flat, whereas in the text the author recommends rotating the patient 15 or 300 to the left. Otherwise the introductory chapters on echocardiography anatomy, recording technique and quantitative measurement are extremely helpful and admirably concise. There are no less than 333' ilusttrations in this remarkably comprehensive atlas. The majority illustrate a wide spectrum of the echocardiographic abnormalities encountered in clinical practice. Seventy tracings illustrating echocardiographic abnormalities of the mitral valve are included. Notworthy among these is the series illustrating mitral valve prolapse. Another 53 photographs give a comprehensive overview of the usefulness of echocardiography in abnormalities of the left ventricle, and especially in the diagnosis of the cardiomyopathies. The chapter on pericardial disease is very helpful regarding effusions but not regarding constrictive pericarditis. The final chapter correlates echocardiographic, phonocardiographic and other graphic representations of cardiac activity. It illustrates the insight which echocardiography has given into the genesis of heart sounds and murmurs, and emphasizes the value of routinely recording the phonocardiogram during echocardiography. This atlas does not push back the frontiers of knowledge relating to its subject, but it does usefully bring together in one compact volume a large collection of superb examples of the echocardiographer's art. It should certainly be bought by every cardiologist who has anything to do with echocardiograms. Most cardiac units will want to have one copy beside their recording apparatus and another at the elbow of the cardiologist reporting on the tracings. THE value of this book, not only for undergraduate students of medicinie but for those preparing for the basic science part of fellowship and other higher examinations, was emphasised in a review seven years ago. Questions and answers in both basic and applied physiology are included and an increasingly wide field is covered. Students who have tested their knowledge by study of this book should be both informed and given confidence. Perhaps regular study of a few pages a day would stimulate their seniors to orientate to the changes in knowledae in …