Medical Microbiology

One strength for all potential readers of the book is that patient positioning and the requirements for a technically adequate study are presented, as well as inherent limitations to certain techniques (e.g., supine portable chest x-rays as opposed to upright, posterior to anterior , films). All physicians would do well to read and understand these sections when requesting, interpreting, or suggesting studies. The radiographs presented are, in general, of high quality and clearly demonstrate classic findings. This book should not, however, be viewed as a comprehensive radiology text. The differential diagnoses are not complete, and discussion of subtle findings and difficult interpretations, so crucial to making consistently excellent and complete readings , is sketchy or skipped altogether. Overall, this book was easy to read and informative. It will not be the primary text for either Emergency Physicians or Radiologists working in busy Emergency Departments, but it deserves a place in all Emergency Department and Radiology libraries. Every physician involved in the care of patients in an Emergency Department should read the sections describing performance of technically adequate chest and cervi-cal spine x-rays and their common pitfalls. Furthermore, physicians working in Emergency Departments without 24 hour radiology support, and Radiologists who infrequently deal with Emergency Department cases, may find this book invaluable in guiding state-of-the-art workups and reliably evaluating potentially life-threatening disease. Most medical microbiology textbooks are organized along traditional lines, systematically going through lists of organisms by taxonomic categories, summarizing the diseases they cause and the therapy available. Medical Microbiology is a new approach to teaching microbiology, designed to illustrate the dynamic host-pathogen relationships that occur in health and disease. The text emphasis is on the biological basis of the host-microbe interaction and is geared to making the subject matter more accessible and relevant to clinical practice. Medical Microbiology is divided into four sections. The first section is entitled, "The Adversaries." It includes nine chapters, three devoted to introducing the varieties of microbes and explaining symbiotic associations between the human host and microbe flora. The remaining six chapters are devoted to host defense mechanisms which together make up a short immunology course. This section is intended to set the scene for the subsequent section entitled "Conflicts." "Conflicts" introduces the concept of infection as a competition between the capacity of the microorganism to multiply, spread, and cause disease, and the ability of the host to control, and finally terminate, the infection. …