The Cath Lab : An Introduction

Book Review The Cath Lab :An Introduction. 2nd ed David L. Lubel, MD Philadelphia, Pa: Lea & Febiger, 1993. Paperback, $29.95, pp 125. This book is aimed primarily a t the nonphysician cardiac catheterization team. In 17 short chapters covering the various aspects of the catheterization procedure, it attempts to educate the nurse, the radiologic technologist, and the physiologic technologist on each other's roles and responsibilities. The production quality is generally adequate for a book in this price category. The chapters cover topics as diverse as who makes up a catheterization team to indications for cardiovascular catheterization, procedural details, catheters and guide wires, medications, physiologic monitoring and pressure measurement, angiography, and angioplasty. This second edition has a new chapter on insertion of permanent pacemakers. The book is easy to read and understand, requiring little prior knowledge of the topics. It appropriately avoids the level of medical and technical detail of larger texts on cardiac catheterization and angiography. Unfortunately, the detail of coverage is not adequate enough to recommend it as a textbook for training any of the technical specialists who constitute the

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team or as reference source for specific details about cardiac catheterization and angiography. Although frequent reference is made to cardiac chambers and coronary arteries, anatomic drawings of these structures are glaringly omitted and they would serve the intended audience better than the examples of pulmonary and abdominal aortic angiograms provided. The descriptions of catheters and guide wires are cursory and some of the items included are not in wide use or have been replaced by newer and smaller designs. The attempt to describe noncardiac vascular procedures is far too cursory and unnecessary for the scope of this book. The book would be strengthened if it concentrated on cardiac procedures alone with a little more detail provided. In conclusion, this book will serve best a s an orientation guide for nurses, radiologic and physiologic technologists, and medical students who are joining a cardiac catheterization team for the first time. It will not suit the needs of fellows or trained catheterizing physicians.

Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology

-Reviewed by Krishna Kandarpa, MD, PhD

May-June 1994