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A colour atlas of neuropathology
Neuroscience Vol. 4, PP. 1405 to 1406 Pergamon Press Ltd. 1979. Printed in Great Bntain
BOOK A Coleur Atlas of Nenropatbelogy,
C. S.
TREIP.
REVIEWS
Wolfe Medical Publications
THE BOOK is ‘an introductory manual of diagnostic neuropathology’, very well printed, with a rich iconographic collection in which the gross aspects of nervous diseases are put in relief. This orientation is laudable, considering that any good neuropathological diagnosis starts from a detailed macroscopic examination of the brain and spinal cord, and the pathologist in training must learn to examine them with the naked eye. The atlas consists of an introduction, 11 chapters, an appendix on practical procedures and a brief bibliography. The chapters are: basic neuropathology of the central nervous system; infections and inflammatory disease; vascular disease; degenerative disease; demyelinating disease; metabolic disorders and nutritional deficiencies; traumatic lesions; congenital malformations and perinatal disorders; neoplasms of the central nervous system; neoplasms of the peripheral nervous system; neoplasms of the pituitary gland, and craniopharyngioma. In Chap. I the elementary lesions of neuron and glia are described. All the figures are beautiful, especially the one of Negri bodies, which reveals that the author is served by an excellent laboratory of histopathology and photomicrography. All the other chapters also are very well illustrated. The Figures of the brain (almost all in black and white) are very clear and don’t need arrows to show the lesions. The colours of the photomicrographs reproduce in general exactly the original colours of the histological staining or impregnation, With only two exceptions, the 321 figures are original ones by the author, which means many years of hard work. In books of this kind, in which the author exposes only his material, it is natural that some chapters are more developed than others, but a balance has been obtained and the aim of addressing the work ‘chiefly to pathologists in training and to senior medical students’ has been fulfilled. Some cases and figures are notable. For example, Fig. 69 (toxoplasmosis), Figs 59 and 66 (aspergillosis), Fig. 102 (mycotic aneurysm), Figs 109 and 110 (cerebral thromboangiitis obliterans), Fig. 115 (giant aneurysm), Fig. 124 (subfalcine herniation), Fig. 123 (laminar necrosis of cortex), Fig. 142 (Werdnig-Hoffman disease), Fig. 153 (Schilder’s disease, in horizontal cut), Fig. 168 (GM2 gangliosidosis), Fig. 195 (‘shearing’ injury), Fig. 198 (chalk-white descending fibers in infarction of cerebellar peduncles), Fig.
Ltd, London (1978). 208 pp., 321 Figs.
203 (neurenteric cyst), Fig 204 (Arnold-Chiari malformation), Fig. 244 (glioma invading the fornix), Fig. 285 (arteriovenous aneurysm). Examining in detail all the Figures, the following, although acceptable, seem to be not very demonstrative: Fig. 14 (senile plaque), Fig. 54 (dementia paralytica), Fig. 71 (cerebral malaria), Fig. 79 (sarcoidosis; for reminiscent of polyarteritis nodosa), Fig. 129 (Alzheimer’s disease), Fig. 131 (Pick’s lobar atrophy), Fig. 134 (Creutzfeld-Jakob disease), Fig. 138 (motor neuron disease), Fig 176 (hepatolenticular degeneration), Fig. 214 (microencephaly; for lack of a ruler). In Fig. 224 of cerebrocerebellar atrophy no notice is taken of the conditions of the skull, which is important in relation to whether we are dealing with a case of atrophy or a case of hypoplasia, for in the latter case the skull also is asymmetrical. Cases of tuberous sclerosis lack the gross aspects of the brain, and Figs 227-9 do not show the characteristic monstrous cells of the disease. Histology of chromophobe adenoma of the pituitary gland lacks a photomicrograph to show the classis aspect of ‘pseudorosettes’. It can be seen, however, that these remarks are relatively few in connection with a book of 321 figures, none of which is poor. Considering their importance in neurology and psychiatry, cases of poliomyelitis, dementia paralytica and neuroviroses would deserve larger documentation. The grouping of metabolic nervous diseases associated with malignant disease (subacute cerebellar degeneration, progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy, neuromyelopathy and myopathic syndrom) is particularly useful. Perhaps Creutzfeld-Jakob’s disease would better be set among viral infections or in an appendix to them, even when as the author writes ‘no virus particles of conventional morphology have yet been found’. Though the layout of diagrams is too free, resulting in large unprofitable white spaces and in some pages the distribution of the figures is not very well balanced, through the position of the legends in some instances being too close to the right-hand margin, in summary the book is very useful, very beautiful and very instructive.
1405
R.
PIAZZA
BOOK A Coleur Atlas of Nenropatbelogy,
C. S.
TREIP.
REVIEWS
Wolfe Medical Publications
THE BOOK is ‘an introductory manual of diagnostic neuropathology’, very well printed, with a rich iconographic collection in which the gross aspects of nervous diseases are put in relief. This orientation is laudable, considering that any good neuropathological diagnosis starts from a detailed macroscopic examination of the brain and spinal cord, and the pathologist in training must learn to examine them with the naked eye. The atlas consists of an introduction, 11 chapters, an appendix on practical procedures and a brief bibliography. The chapters are: basic neuropathology of the central nervous system; infections and inflammatory disease; vascular disease; degenerative disease; demyelinating disease; metabolic disorders and nutritional deficiencies; traumatic lesions; congenital malformations and perinatal disorders; neoplasms of the central nervous system; neoplasms of the peripheral nervous system; neoplasms of the pituitary gland, and craniopharyngioma. In Chap. I the elementary lesions of neuron and glia are described. All the figures are beautiful, especially the one of Negri bodies, which reveals that the author is served by an excellent laboratory of histopathology and photomicrography. All the other chapters also are very well illustrated. The Figures of the brain (almost all in black and white) are very clear and don’t need arrows to show the lesions. The colours of the photomicrographs reproduce in general exactly the original colours of the histological staining or impregnation, With only two exceptions, the 321 figures are original ones by the author, which means many years of hard work. In books of this kind, in which the author exposes only his material, it is natural that some chapters are more developed than others, but a balance has been obtained and the aim of addressing the work ‘chiefly to pathologists in training and to senior medical students’ has been fulfilled. Some cases and figures are notable. For example, Fig. 69 (toxoplasmosis), Figs 59 and 66 (aspergillosis), Fig. 102 (mycotic aneurysm), Figs 109 and 110 (cerebral thromboangiitis obliterans), Fig. 115 (giant aneurysm), Fig. 124 (subfalcine herniation), Fig. 123 (laminar necrosis of cortex), Fig. 142 (Werdnig-Hoffman disease), Fig. 153 (Schilder’s disease, in horizontal cut), Fig. 168 (GM2 gangliosidosis), Fig. 195 (‘shearing’ injury), Fig. 198 (chalk-white descending fibers in infarction of cerebellar peduncles), Fig.
Ltd, London (1978). 208 pp., 321 Figs.
203 (neurenteric cyst), Fig 204 (Arnold-Chiari malformation), Fig. 244 (glioma invading the fornix), Fig. 285 (arteriovenous aneurysm). Examining in detail all the Figures, the following, although acceptable, seem to be not very demonstrative: Fig. 14 (senile plaque), Fig. 54 (dementia paralytica), Fig. 71 (cerebral malaria), Fig. 79 (sarcoidosis; for reminiscent of polyarteritis nodosa), Fig. 129 (Alzheimer’s disease), Fig. 131 (Pick’s lobar atrophy), Fig. 134 (Creutzfeld-Jakob disease), Fig. 138 (motor neuron disease), Fig 176 (hepatolenticular degeneration), Fig. 214 (microencephaly; for lack of a ruler). In Fig. 224 of cerebrocerebellar atrophy no notice is taken of the conditions of the skull, which is important in relation to whether we are dealing with a case of atrophy or a case of hypoplasia, for in the latter case the skull also is asymmetrical. Cases of tuberous sclerosis lack the gross aspects of the brain, and Figs 227-9 do not show the characteristic monstrous cells of the disease. Histology of chromophobe adenoma of the pituitary gland lacks a photomicrograph to show the classis aspect of ‘pseudorosettes’. It can be seen, however, that these remarks are relatively few in connection with a book of 321 figures, none of which is poor. Considering their importance in neurology and psychiatry, cases of poliomyelitis, dementia paralytica and neuroviroses would deserve larger documentation. The grouping of metabolic nervous diseases associated with malignant disease (subacute cerebellar degeneration, progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy, neuromyelopathy and myopathic syndrom) is particularly useful. Perhaps Creutzfeld-Jakob’s disease would better be set among viral infections or in an appendix to them, even when as the author writes ‘no virus particles of conventional morphology have yet been found’. Though the layout of diagrams is too free, resulting in large unprofitable white spaces and in some pages the distribution of the figures is not very well balanced, through the position of the legends in some instances being too close to the right-hand margin, in summary the book is very useful, very beautiful and very instructive.
1405
R.
PIAZZA