An Illustrated Guide to Gastrointestinal Motility

addresses the practical basis from which the medical student and physician must approach the treatment of diabetes. This book is the second edition of Olson's work. Its revisions include a new chapter on the"finger-stick" method of self-glucose testing, along with reviews of the "secondgeneration" sulfonylureas and the use of external and implanted insulin infusion pumps. Olson restructured his text to emphasize the growing consensus that continuous hyperglycemia is responsible for the complications of diabetes. The general organization of the book is carried over from the earlier edition. The first few chapters offer a succinct and well-written explanation of the classification, epidemiology, and diagnosis of diabetes. The second portion of the book is devoted to those aspects of diabetes management which the afflicted patient must deal with on a daily basis; these include self-glucose testing, urine testing, dietary management, insulin use and administration, and oral anti-diabetes medications. Subsequent chapters discuss the more serious management of both types of diabetes and the associated complications. The section on pregnancy management in diabetics is particularly good, and the chapters dealing with the relationship of blood sugar control to acute decompensation and the chronic diseases and complications are well done. The final chapters deal with substitute sweeteners and alternate insulin delivery systems. The book is unique and particularly useful because of its practical style. Unlike more comprehensive works on diabetes, this volume is in essence a manual which gives the most important step-by-step procedures for treating both acute and chronic diabetic complications. The author provides a brief but adequate scientific background, thus adding a logical basis to the material and avoiding the dryness inherent in other manuals. Olson's text provides a readily accessible desk reference for the practicing physician in the general management of diabetes; it also is essential reading for any interested medical student.