Pulmonary Circulation: Diseases and Their Treatment - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340807822 ISBN 13: 9780340807828

Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers, 2004

Synopsis

This second edition has been designed and written specifically with the busy clinician in mind, and will establish Pulmonary Circulation as the definitive reference in this important field. While retaining the theoretical and scientific content of the previous edition, this comprehensive update is more clinically directed. Highly structured throughout, early chapters are devoted to the structure, function, and pathophysiology of the pulmonary circulation. Diagnosis methods key to the correct evaluation of pulmonary hypertension, including echocardiography, imaging techniques and cardiac catheterisation, are covered in detail. The book then moves on to a consideration of the different disorders of the pulmonary circulation, their diagnosis and their treatment, including arterial and venous hypertension, thromboembolism and vascular tumors. Other issues tackled include the pulmonary circulation in critical care, disorders causing intrapulmonary shunt, and the pulmonary circulation in special environments such as high altitude, underwater and in the womb. This second edition also features an expanded pediatric section, and adherence to the new Evian classification of pulmonary hypertension.

About this title

About the Author

Lewis J. Rubin is Professor of Medicine and Director, Pulmonary Vascular Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Reviews

This second edition of Pulmonary Circulation is timely. Nine years have elapsed since its first edition in 1996, years in which we have witnessed such major scientific advances as the description of the human genome (2001) and, directly relevant to the pulmonary circulation, alteration of the gene for bone morphogenetic protein receptor type 2 (BMPR2) on chromosome 2q33. Two groups of investigators identified BMPR2 mutations in about 50 percent of familial cases and 26 percent of sporadic cases of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension at the midpoint (2000) between publication of the first and second editions of Pulmonary Circulation. Other notable events that occurred during the period between editions were the development of a new classification of pulmonary hypertension under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization, a revised classification, and new treatments that emerged from large multicenter controlled trials involving patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension -- a disease that, just two decades ago, had a mean survival period of less than three years. The book is a combined effort of investigators heavily invested in the study of the pulmonary circulation from the United States, many parts of Europe, Mexico, Canada, and Australia (the list of contributors is a who's who of pulmonary-hypertension experts in the world). These authors collectively have contributed to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension and to the development of new drug treatments, which lend a "front stage" feeling to the book for the casual reader as well as the expert in the field. The book's nine sections, with a total of 52 chapters, cover most known aspects of the pathology and physiology of the pulmonary circulation. The orientation is heavily tilted in favor of the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (covered in parts 3, 4, and 6, which represent more than 350 pages), a prototypical disease of the pulmonary circulation and the most common syndrome affecting the pulmonary circulation. The various causes of pulmonary hypertension receive generous and comprehensive coverage. One excellent and concise chapter deals with the genetics of pulmonary hypertension, and the topic is further covered in other chapters. The section on pulmonary arterial hypertension is capped by a masterly overview of the currently available treatments that have emerged from recent large clinical trials, promising emerging drugs, and a rationale for future therapeutic research. This section is a comprehensive and important one for the expert in pulmonary hypertension as well as the general practitioner. Part 5 elucidates the diagnosis and treatment of chronic (in addition to acute) thromboembolic disease and pulmonary vascular tumors. Both of these conditions, despite their rarity, are deservedly emphasized because there is a surgical treatment that favorably alters the prognosis. The chapters are written by investigators with some of the broadest expertise in these challenging disorders. Several practical points make the reading of this book enjoyable: the extensive index and reference material, the stand-alone chapter structure, the explicit pathological slides and photographs, and the inventory of key points summarized at the end of each chapter. Up-to-date and practical guidelines are provided for each topic. This book is at the vanguard of its type in the field of the pulmonary circulation, and it achieves the editors' ambitious goal of providing a balance between scientific review and clinically relevant, comprehensive guidelines for the busy practicing physician. One deficiency is the absence of a historical perspective on pulmonary circulation, the study of which dates back to Ibn Nafis (1210-1288), William Harvey (1578-1657), and more recently, David Dresdale, Peter Harris, and Paul Hamilton Wood, among many others. The late John ("Jack") Reeves (who died unexpectedly this year after a bicycle accident, just after participating in a conference on pulmonary circulation) would have been aptly suited to this task. Short of this, in the foreword to this second edition of Pulmonary Circulation, Reeves gives us an insightful perspective on the breadth of the book and its raison d'etre. Paul M. Hassoun, M.D.
Copyright © 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hodder Education Publishers
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340807822
• ISBN 13: 9780340807828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 652
• Editor: Peacock Andrew J., Rubin Lewis J.