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Electrophysiology of the heart
Book
reviews
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM. AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSIOLOGY. By Bruno Kisch, M.D., Professor and Medical Director, Yeshiva University; Director, Electron Microscopic Research Institute,. Elmhurst City Hospital at -New York; Professor Emeritus. Universitv of Cologne. Cologne. Germany. Translaied from the original’ German text by Arnold I. Kisch, M.D., New Haven, Conn. Springfield, Ill., 1960, Charles C Thomas, 180 pages. Price $7.50. The
title of this book is somewhat misleading, because from it one expects a description, at the electron microscopic level, of the entire cardiovascular system. Actually, no part of the cardiovascular system, except the heart, is even touched upon. A large part of the book is devoted to the ultrastructure of muscle, both skeletal and cardiac. An attempt is made to review some of the earlier
ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY OF THE HEART. By Brian F. Hoffman, M.D., Associate Professor of Physiology, College of Medicine, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Paul F. Cranefield, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Phvsioloav. -, , College of Medicine. State Universitv . of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. ‘I’. New York, 1960 McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 323 pages. Price $12.50. This book is a summary of available information about the transmembrane potentials of single cardiac fibers as registered by microelectrode techniques, much of it previously unpublished. After introducing the methods and the Hodgkin ionic theory of the action potential, the authors have systematically described the characteristics of the action potentials found in the major types of cardiac fibers (atrial, ventricular, sinoatrial
EDEMA. MECHANISMS AND MANAGEMENT. Edited by John H. Moyer, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital; and Morton Fuchs, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Hahnemann Medl ical College and Hosoital. Philadelohia. Pa. Philadephia, 1660, W. B. Saunders Company; 833 pages. Price $15.00. Many individuals contributed papers on various aspects of the problems relative to edema which formed the program of the Symposium on Edema, Mechanisms and Management. The papers are included in this monograph. Some of the discussions are interesting and thought-provoking, whereas others are dull or simply restate concepts of many years’ duration, without indicating the discrepancies between theory and fact. For example, on pages 4 and 5 the statement is made 139
work on muscle, but the author gives insufficient recognition to the real pioneers in the electron microscopic study of muscle. In his discussion of muscle fiber, the author dwells at length on myofibrils, sarcosomes (mitochondria), striations, and nuclei; however, he barely touches on the endoplasmic reticulum, which is an important component of muscle as well as of other types of cells, and which has been studied extensively with the electron microscope. This book is actually a review of the author’s own work of the last ten years, to which he adds his own (sometimes questionable) interpretations of the work of others. Nomenclature is inconsistent and the wording is poor, so that it is often difficult to understand the author’s meaning. Apparently, the many electron photomicrographs used in the book were all from the author’s laboratory. The quality of the micrographs ranges from good to poor.
nodal, atrioventricular nodal, and Purkinje) and the effects of physiologic variables upon each. The text is lucid and the presentation logical and straightforward. A wide audience has been kept in mind by the sound early introduction of preparatory definitions. However, one exceptional obstacle to clarity for the general reader in the field of cardiology was noted: the term regenerutive depolarization was frequently encountered and never adequately defined. Careful comparison of contexts allowed the inference that both local and propagated responses were included, and that regenerative was used in the sense of autoaccelerative, but the electronic basis for such usage was not made clear. The reviewer strongly recommends this book to the serious student of the electrical behavior of cardiac muscle, whether he be biophysicist, physiologist, or physician.
that the transcapillary hydrostatic pressure which tends to promote a loss of water from the tissue is equal to the oncotic pressure which tends to return the fluid. The author then states that those who came to the Symposium on a bus had their legs down for a long time. After introducing this concept, he fails to indicate why all of them did not have their legs greatly distended with edema fluid, knowing how rapidly fluid and electrolytes traverse the capillary walls. Nor does he point out why it is, if transcapillary hydrostatic and oncotic forces are equal, and transcapillary fluid exchange is simply regulated by such forces, that all people are without gross evidence of edema of the legs all day, why tall people do not normally have much more edema of the ankles and feet than short ones, or why patients have high venous pressure without clinical evidence of edema. If a symposium is to settle
reviews
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM. AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSIOLOGY. By Bruno Kisch, M.D., Professor and Medical Director, Yeshiva University; Director, Electron Microscopic Research Institute,. Elmhurst City Hospital at -New York; Professor Emeritus. Universitv of Cologne. Cologne. Germany. Translaied from the original’ German text by Arnold I. Kisch, M.D., New Haven, Conn. Springfield, Ill., 1960, Charles C Thomas, 180 pages. Price $7.50. The
title of this book is somewhat misleading, because from it one expects a description, at the electron microscopic level, of the entire cardiovascular system. Actually, no part of the cardiovascular system, except the heart, is even touched upon. A large part of the book is devoted to the ultrastructure of muscle, both skeletal and cardiac. An attempt is made to review some of the earlier
ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY OF THE HEART. By Brian F. Hoffman, M.D., Associate Professor of Physiology, College of Medicine, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Paul F. Cranefield, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Phvsioloav. -, , College of Medicine. State Universitv . of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. ‘I’. New York, 1960 McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 323 pages. Price $12.50. This book is a summary of available information about the transmembrane potentials of single cardiac fibers as registered by microelectrode techniques, much of it previously unpublished. After introducing the methods and the Hodgkin ionic theory of the action potential, the authors have systematically described the characteristics of the action potentials found in the major types of cardiac fibers (atrial, ventricular, sinoatrial
EDEMA. MECHANISMS AND MANAGEMENT. Edited by John H. Moyer, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital; and Morton Fuchs, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine, Hahnemann Medl ical College and Hosoital. Philadelohia. Pa. Philadephia, 1660, W. B. Saunders Company; 833 pages. Price $15.00. Many individuals contributed papers on various aspects of the problems relative to edema which formed the program of the Symposium on Edema, Mechanisms and Management. The papers are included in this monograph. Some of the discussions are interesting and thought-provoking, whereas others are dull or simply restate concepts of many years’ duration, without indicating the discrepancies between theory and fact. For example, on pages 4 and 5 the statement is made 139
work on muscle, but the author gives insufficient recognition to the real pioneers in the electron microscopic study of muscle. In his discussion of muscle fiber, the author dwells at length on myofibrils, sarcosomes (mitochondria), striations, and nuclei; however, he barely touches on the endoplasmic reticulum, which is an important component of muscle as well as of other types of cells, and which has been studied extensively with the electron microscope. This book is actually a review of the author’s own work of the last ten years, to which he adds his own (sometimes questionable) interpretations of the work of others. Nomenclature is inconsistent and the wording is poor, so that it is often difficult to understand the author’s meaning. Apparently, the many electron photomicrographs used in the book were all from the author’s laboratory. The quality of the micrographs ranges from good to poor.
nodal, atrioventricular nodal, and Purkinje) and the effects of physiologic variables upon each. The text is lucid and the presentation logical and straightforward. A wide audience has been kept in mind by the sound early introduction of preparatory definitions. However, one exceptional obstacle to clarity for the general reader in the field of cardiology was noted: the term regenerutive depolarization was frequently encountered and never adequately defined. Careful comparison of contexts allowed the inference that both local and propagated responses were included, and that regenerative was used in the sense of autoaccelerative, but the electronic basis for such usage was not made clear. The reviewer strongly recommends this book to the serious student of the electrical behavior of cardiac muscle, whether he be biophysicist, physiologist, or physician.
that the transcapillary hydrostatic pressure which tends to promote a loss of water from the tissue is equal to the oncotic pressure which tends to return the fluid. The author then states that those who came to the Symposium on a bus had their legs down for a long time. After introducing this concept, he fails to indicate why all of them did not have their legs greatly distended with edema fluid, knowing how rapidly fluid and electrolytes traverse the capillary walls. Nor does he point out why it is, if transcapillary hydrostatic and oncotic forces are equal, and transcapillary fluid exchange is simply regulated by such forces, that all people are without gross evidence of edema of the legs all day, why tall people do not normally have much more edema of the ankles and feet than short ones, or why patients have high venous pressure without clinical evidence of edema. If a symposium is to settle