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Intensive Respiratory Care
Book
abdominal organs and other surrounding structures. This book will be of immense value to clinicians who work in casualty departments everywhere, and particularly where the help of a chest surgeon is not a mere telephone call away.
Immunopharmacolopy
Intensive
Respiratory
Care
J. M. Lute, M. L. Tyler and D. J. Pierson Eastbourne: W. B. Saunders. 1983. 1st edition. Pp. 345. Price Ll 1.50 This is one of the W. B. Saunders Blue Books Series-a collection with soft covers, spiral wire binding and sized to fit the coat pocket. In just over 300 fact-filled pages, it includes a remarkable diversity of basic science and clinical practice, and uses this as a framework on which to base much wise, practical and experienced advice. A few brief lines place issues of controversy in perspective, such as the role of Swan Ganz catheterization or the importance of and the avant garde ‘in oxygen toxicity, therapeutics is given a sensibly critical welcome. The book’s transatlantic origin is apparent immediately, for example, the coverage of techniques of respiratory physical therapy, but this does not detract in any way from its value to the UK reader. It opens with a detailed contents list and each of the twenty chapters concludes with about a dozen crisply chosen references. The diagrams are clear and relevant, with a notable absence of grossly abnormal x-rays which so often do little more than sustain anecdote. There is a comprehensive 30-page index, followed by a few spare pages for the insertion of each reader’s own aide-memoire. Throughout there is a pleasing sense of consideration for the whole patient, not just his disease, and only rarely does this smack of unnecessary zeal. Inevitably, it is possible to disagree with some of the advice given but this is too infrequent to warrant mention. Similarly, the emphasis on physical therapy might exceed current practice in the UK but, here too, the fundamental objectives remain the same. At only El 1.50, it is excellent value for money, unequalled in my opinion by any other available book on the practical management of respiratory intensive care. M. A. Branthwaite
of the Lung
Volume
19
Ed. H. H. Newball New York: Marcel Dekker. 1983. Pp. 514. SW Fr 173 of the Lung represents the 19th volume ofa series ofauthorative updates on Lung Biology in Health and Disease. Over the last decade there has been a rapid expansion of research into the identification and biological activities of chemical mediators of inflammation. The first four chapters are well written and catalogue in detail the historical events which have led to the structural identification of sulpidopeptide leukotrienes as the components of slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis (SRS-A) and other pathways for the oxidative metabolism of arachidonic acid to newly generated mediators. The structural identification of platelet activating factor as acetyl glyceryl ether phosphorylcholine (AGEPC or PAF-Acether, as it is known in Europe) and its biological activities outside its effect on platelets is considered by Dr Pinckard, one of the pioneer research workers in this field. All these mediators have been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma and are highlighted by sections on the immunopharmacology of human mast cells and basophils both in vitro and in patients with asthma. Along the same theme there are two informative sections on the regulation of airway mucus secretion and the mucociliary system. The book suffers from the slight drawback of being heavily focused on the role of inflammatory mediators in the pathogenesis of immediate hypersensitivity reactions and asthma in particular, but this is probably because it is these reactions where some of the more exciting discoveries in pulmonary immunopharmacology have been made. It is therefore useful to have a consideration of how the leukotriene components of SRS-A interact with airway smooth muscle especially since it has been proposed that this group ofmediators are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis ofairway hyper-reactivity in asthma. A much needed review of the role of complement anaphylatoxins in lung disease and its possible relevance to non-allergic asthma is presented. Two chapters on chemotactic mechanisms and neutrophil dysfunction contain helpful descriptions of the potential role of these mobile phagocytes in lung disease and this links well with a consideration of the role of Immunopharmacology
F. C. Wells
311
Reviews
abdominal organs and other surrounding structures. This book will be of immense value to clinicians who work in casualty departments everywhere, and particularly where the help of a chest surgeon is not a mere telephone call away.
Immunopharmacolopy
Intensive
Respiratory
Care
J. M. Lute, M. L. Tyler and D. J. Pierson Eastbourne: W. B. Saunders. 1983. 1st edition. Pp. 345. Price Ll 1.50 This is one of the W. B. Saunders Blue Books Series-a collection with soft covers, spiral wire binding and sized to fit the coat pocket. In just over 300 fact-filled pages, it includes a remarkable diversity of basic science and clinical practice, and uses this as a framework on which to base much wise, practical and experienced advice. A few brief lines place issues of controversy in perspective, such as the role of Swan Ganz catheterization or the importance of and the avant garde ‘in oxygen toxicity, therapeutics is given a sensibly critical welcome. The book’s transatlantic origin is apparent immediately, for example, the coverage of techniques of respiratory physical therapy, but this does not detract in any way from its value to the UK reader. It opens with a detailed contents list and each of the twenty chapters concludes with about a dozen crisply chosen references. The diagrams are clear and relevant, with a notable absence of grossly abnormal x-rays which so often do little more than sustain anecdote. There is a comprehensive 30-page index, followed by a few spare pages for the insertion of each reader’s own aide-memoire. Throughout there is a pleasing sense of consideration for the whole patient, not just his disease, and only rarely does this smack of unnecessary zeal. Inevitably, it is possible to disagree with some of the advice given but this is too infrequent to warrant mention. Similarly, the emphasis on physical therapy might exceed current practice in the UK but, here too, the fundamental objectives remain the same. At only El 1.50, it is excellent value for money, unequalled in my opinion by any other available book on the practical management of respiratory intensive care. M. A. Branthwaite
of the Lung
Volume
19
Ed. H. H. Newball New York: Marcel Dekker. 1983. Pp. 514. SW Fr 173 of the Lung represents the 19th volume ofa series ofauthorative updates on Lung Biology in Health and Disease. Over the last decade there has been a rapid expansion of research into the identification and biological activities of chemical mediators of inflammation. The first four chapters are well written and catalogue in detail the historical events which have led to the structural identification of sulpidopeptide leukotrienes as the components of slow reacting substance of anaphylaxis (SRS-A) and other pathways for the oxidative metabolism of arachidonic acid to newly generated mediators. The structural identification of platelet activating factor as acetyl glyceryl ether phosphorylcholine (AGEPC or PAF-Acether, as it is known in Europe) and its biological activities outside its effect on platelets is considered by Dr Pinckard, one of the pioneer research workers in this field. All these mediators have been implicated in the pathogenesis of asthma and are highlighted by sections on the immunopharmacology of human mast cells and basophils both in vitro and in patients with asthma. Along the same theme there are two informative sections on the regulation of airway mucus secretion and the mucociliary system. The book suffers from the slight drawback of being heavily focused on the role of inflammatory mediators in the pathogenesis of immediate hypersensitivity reactions and asthma in particular, but this is probably because it is these reactions where some of the more exciting discoveries in pulmonary immunopharmacology have been made. It is therefore useful to have a consideration of how the leukotriene components of SRS-A interact with airway smooth muscle especially since it has been proposed that this group ofmediators are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis ofairway hyper-reactivity in asthma. A much needed review of the role of complement anaphylatoxins in lung disease and its possible relevance to non-allergic asthma is presented. Two chapters on chemotactic mechanisms and neutrophil dysfunction contain helpful descriptions of the potential role of these mobile phagocytes in lung disease and this links well with a consideration of the role of Immunopharmacology
F. C. Wells
311
Reviews