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International encyclopedia of pharmacology and therapeutics, volumes I and II
Book Reviews
405
FUNDAMENTALS OF TUBERCULOSIS TODAY: FOR STUDENTS IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS. WILLIAM W. STEAD. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1971. 24 pp. Indexed. $1 .OOper copy; special rates available on multiple orders. ALL THE current facts about tuberculosis are clearly stated and diagrammatically illustrated in this short (25 pp) booklet. The essentials of the pathology, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of this still prevalent disease are presented in terms understandable to the students of medicine, nursing, inhalation therapy, laboratory and radiology technology, and public health. This presentation should be most useful for students and workers in hospitals or institutions undertaking for the first time the treatment of tuberculosis. WILLIAMB. BUCKINGHAM
INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS, VOLUMES I AND II. Edited by LOUIS LASAGNA. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1966. 667 pp. Indexed. Price not available. THESE volumes devoted to clinical pharmacology and edited by Louis Lasagna were first published in 1966. The chapters cover the treatment of a wide range of specific clinical problems. Although the specific details in some of the chapters are somewhat out-of-date (for example, the section on the therapy of Parkinsonism), the main emphasis is on the careful testing, evaluation and use of drugs in man. The work is authoritatively written and, because a methodical approach rather than modish detail has been stressed, these volumes still succeed in their acknowledged purpose of providing ‘hard-headed advice to those interested in the investigation of drugs in man, or to the analysis of the work of others accumulating such data’. ARTHURJ. ATKINSON,JR.
AUTOSENSITIZATION
IN PEMPHIGUS
AND BULLOUS PEMPHIGOID. and ROBERT E. JORDAN. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1970. 185 pp. Indexed. $22.75. ERNEST H. BEUTNER, TADEUSZ P. CHORZELSKI
THIS valuable contribution to the literature concerned with immunofluorescent studies should be of interest to all workers in this field. The methodology applied here to observations of the skin is equally applicable to observations of other tissues. The authors have attempted, with apparent success, to place the indirect technique on a quantitative basis so that patients’ sera may be assayed for specific immunoglobulins by this method with reproducible results obtained. Between the first chapters and three appendices which deal largely with methodology, are several chapters describing the clinical significance of skin reacting antibodies in pemphigus erythematosus and in bullous pemphigoid, the relation of these antibodies to, and their differentiation from similar antibodies in other immunological disturbances, and finally, a discussion of the pathogenetic and etiologic significance of autosensitization in general and in pemphigus and pemphigoid in particular. The authors conclude that in bullous pemphigoid, all patients have IgG and complement bound to the basement membranes in the lesions, even in the absence of circulating antibody. The pathogenetic significance of these antibodies is clouded, however, by the occurrence of: similar distribution of IgG and complement in normal skin in these patients; inconsistent correlation of their titers with clinical severity of the disease; and their failure to elicit blisters in passive transfer experiments. In pemphigus, not only are antibodies found in the stratified squamous epithelia of all patients but their serum titer correlates with the clinical severity of the disease. Again, however, bullous lesions are not produced by passive transfer experiments. As stated by the authors: ‘the disease specific immunological phenomena’ (described herein) ‘afford new insights into the mechanism of autoimmunity in general when examined with well-defined immunofluorescent staining methods’, also described within this authoritative treatise. An exhaustive review of pertinent literature is included. ELIZABETHV. POTTER
405
FUNDAMENTALS OF TUBERCULOSIS TODAY: FOR STUDENTS IN THE HEALTH PROFESSIONS. WILLIAM W. STEAD. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1971. 24 pp. Indexed. $1 .OOper copy; special rates available on multiple orders. ALL THE current facts about tuberculosis are clearly stated and diagrammatically illustrated in this short (25 pp) booklet. The essentials of the pathology, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of this still prevalent disease are presented in terms understandable to the students of medicine, nursing, inhalation therapy, laboratory and radiology technology, and public health. This presentation should be most useful for students and workers in hospitals or institutions undertaking for the first time the treatment of tuberculosis. WILLIAMB. BUCKINGHAM
INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHARMACOLOGY AND THERAPEUTICS, VOLUMES I AND II. Edited by LOUIS LASAGNA. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1966. 667 pp. Indexed. Price not available. THESE volumes devoted to clinical pharmacology and edited by Louis Lasagna were first published in 1966. The chapters cover the treatment of a wide range of specific clinical problems. Although the specific details in some of the chapters are somewhat out-of-date (for example, the section on the therapy of Parkinsonism), the main emphasis is on the careful testing, evaluation and use of drugs in man. The work is authoritatively written and, because a methodical approach rather than modish detail has been stressed, these volumes still succeed in their acknowledged purpose of providing ‘hard-headed advice to those interested in the investigation of drugs in man, or to the analysis of the work of others accumulating such data’. ARTHURJ. ATKINSON,JR.
AUTOSENSITIZATION
IN PEMPHIGUS
AND BULLOUS PEMPHIGOID. and ROBERT E. JORDAN. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1970. 185 pp. Indexed. $22.75. ERNEST H. BEUTNER, TADEUSZ P. CHORZELSKI
THIS valuable contribution to the literature concerned with immunofluorescent studies should be of interest to all workers in this field. The methodology applied here to observations of the skin is equally applicable to observations of other tissues. The authors have attempted, with apparent success, to place the indirect technique on a quantitative basis so that patients’ sera may be assayed for specific immunoglobulins by this method with reproducible results obtained. Between the first chapters and three appendices which deal largely with methodology, are several chapters describing the clinical significance of skin reacting antibodies in pemphigus erythematosus and in bullous pemphigoid, the relation of these antibodies to, and their differentiation from similar antibodies in other immunological disturbances, and finally, a discussion of the pathogenetic and etiologic significance of autosensitization in general and in pemphigus and pemphigoid in particular. The authors conclude that in bullous pemphigoid, all patients have IgG and complement bound to the basement membranes in the lesions, even in the absence of circulating antibody. The pathogenetic significance of these antibodies is clouded, however, by the occurrence of: similar distribution of IgG and complement in normal skin in these patients; inconsistent correlation of their titers with clinical severity of the disease; and their failure to elicit blisters in passive transfer experiments. In pemphigus, not only are antibodies found in the stratified squamous epithelia of all patients but their serum titer correlates with the clinical severity of the disease. Again, however, bullous lesions are not produced by passive transfer experiments. As stated by the authors: ‘the disease specific immunological phenomena’ (described herein) ‘afford new insights into the mechanism of autoimmunity in general when examined with well-defined immunofluorescent staining methods’, also described within this authoritative treatise. An exhaustive review of pertinent literature is included. ELIZABETHV. POTTER