Graft-vs.-Host Disease: Immunology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment

Graft-vs.-Host Disease: Immunology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment

344 Mayo Clin Proc, March 1991, Vol 66 BOOK REVIEWS ogy and neurosurgery, it will also be rewarding for practicing neurologists, neurosurgeons, int...

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344

Mayo Clin Proc, March 1991, Vol 66

BOOK REVIEWS

ogy and neurosurgery, it will also be rewarding for practicing neurologists, neurosurgeons, internists, and family physicians, as well as enterprising medical students. Jonathan D. Trobe, M.D. Department of Neurology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan

AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Adolescent Medicine: State of the Art Reviews, Vol 1, No.3), edited by Manuel Schydlower and Mary-Ann Shafer, 647 pp, with illus, $28, Philadelphia, Hanley & Belfus, 1990 In AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Adolescent Medicine: State ofthe Art Reviews), the editors have assembled important and well-written articles. The book is, as it claims to be, state of the art. This valuable reference source should be useful to both primary-care and specialty physicians who deal with adolescents. Sexually transmitted diseases have reached epidemic proportions among adolescents and represent one of the major health threats to them. Sadly, not only is the number of affected adolescents increasing but so are the types of infections and severity oftheir sequelae. Hence, it behooves any physician who provides health care to adolescents to be aware of the risks, manifestations, and complications of these diseases. I am unaware of any other publication that presents such valuable and practical information on this subject. The articles on specific sexually transmitted diseases are well written and accurate. For physicians who treat adolescents, this text provides excellent guidelines on when to suspect sexually transmitted diseases and how to evaluate them. Furthermore, the guidelines for management are clearly written and appropriate. The authors ofthe individual articles are well informed and cite useful references for those

persons interested in reading more specific information and in studying scientific data on which conclusions and recommendations are based. Physicians who provide health care to adolescents will be pleased with this book because it extends beyond straightforward medical facts. It addresses the psychosocial, maturational, and behavioral facets of adolescents that modify the manner in which they seek medical intervention, are assessed, and can be successfully managed. The case is well made that physicians cannot directly apply to adolescents the medical principles learned and practiced on adults with risk or diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases without considering the variables that affect adolescents seeking medical aid and complying with management. In summary, this volume is a valuable reference source for physicians involved in the health care of adolescents. To my knowledge, it is the most up-to-date, complete, and well-written text currently available on the subject. As a physician who encounters adolescent patients, I welcome this book to my library, knowing that I will find it extremely helpful in providing medical care to adolescents. Patricia S. Simmons, M.D. Department of Pediatrics

Graft-vs.-Host Disease: Immunology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment (Hematology, Vol 12), edited by Steven J. Burakoff, H. Joachim Deeg, James Ferrara, and Kerry Atkinson, 725 pp, with illus, $175, New York, Marcel Dekker, 1990 Our knowledge of graft-versus-host (GVH) disease, a phenomenon that can occur in association with transplantation-specifically, bone marrow transplantation-has expanded tremendously during the past 2 decades. Although we still have much to learn about the immunopathophysiologic features of this disease, the editors are to be commended for compiling the current information in a single text.

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This book, the 12th volume in a series dedi- our memory and knowledge. Science ofVision is cated to the field of hematology, is a multiau- about processes that occur in the transition from thored text by experts well known in the field of the physical image on the retina to conscious bone marrow transplantation. This in-depth, perception of the visual scene. complex review begins with experimental GVH Dr. Leibovic has taken an interdisciplinary disease and ends with clinical GVH disease. All approach to visual science and has included aspects of the immunologic and pathophysio- chapters that discuss vision in terms of anatomic logic processes are covered, as are current ways and physiologic features of the central nervous to manage the disease and prospects for the system, psychophysics, and computer science. future. A complete glossary of terms commonly The text is divided into three parts: biophysics abbreviated in the field of bone marrow trans- and physiologic processes, psychophysics, and plantation is included. The index is extensive theory and computation. In part 1, the anatomic and provides readers the opportunity to find all and physiologic characteristics of neural circuits available information on a particular aspect of involved with visual function are reviewed. Function is addressed in terms of concepts and GVH disease. This volume is unsuitable for general inter- principles that have been demonstrated by clasnists but would certainly be an excellent refer- sic experiments and expanded by information ence source for persons involved in bone marrow obtained in recent years. In part 2, dark adaptransplantation and in other aspects of trans- tation, perception and classification of color, and plantation in general, including pathologic find- elements of perceptual function are explored in ings,blood banking, and immunologic aspects. the context of psychophysical experiments. The Because of the price of this text, I can recom- final chapter in this section relates anatomic mend it only for reference purposes for large structure to perceptual function and presents a groups of medical personnel. For these persons, comprehensive description of parallel and serial this is an outstanding compilation of informa- processes that must occur in the visual system. tion that is currently known and understood Part 3, on theory and computation, describes about this complex immunopathophysiologic attempts at modeling the visual system and entity and all its diverse manifestations in the includes a discussion of how engineers have human body as well as in animal models. approached the difficulty of designing imageprocessing systems. One might not expect to H. Clark Hoagland, M.D. find coverage of computer algorithms and artifiDivision of Hematology cial intelligence in a book on structure and funcand Internal Medicine tion of biologic vision, although, as the authors indicate, a man-made system that extracts important features from an image must perform many tasks that are also done by biologic sysScience of Vision, edited by K. N. Leibovic, tems. This section illustrates how mathematic 487 pp, with illus, $49, New York, Springer- modeling of biologic processes can provide inVerlag, 1990 sight into the workings of biologic visual systems. Several chapters describe approaches The image of the world that is focused on our that computer scientists have taken to perform retinas is transformed by receptor cells and image processing for use in machine vision. neural circuits to a sequence of action potentials The text demonstrates that much has been that are conveyed through the optic nerve to the learned about how single cells interact at varivisual cortex. Converging and diverging neural ous levels ofthe visual system and what types of pathways ultimately bring the image to con- information are abstracted. In the chapters that scious perception; thus, it can be interpreted describe perceptual function, it is clear that through experience and stored to become part of much has yet to be learned about how the brain