Autonomic Failure: A Textbook of Clinical Disorders of the Autonomic Nervous System

The subject of autonomic dysfunction has come under serious and systematic scrutiny relatively recently, partly owing to the efforts of Sir Roger Bannister, the editor ofAutonomic Failure. Far too often, the diagnosis is either ignored on one hand or invoked vaguely on the other to explain a variety of otherwise inexplicable symptoms, particularly in the diabetic or elderly person. Even when the diagnosis of autonomic failure is accurately made, therapeutic maneuvers are limited or sometimes misdirected. With the publication of this book, there is no further excuse for such a state of affairs. This is a wide-ranging, comprehensive review of the causes, presentations, diagnosis, and pathophysiology of disorders of the autonomic nervous system, assembled from 31 contributors around the world. Most chapters are well written. Particularly fine are the practical and readable chapters by D. J. Ewing on bedside tests of autonomic dysfunction, the discussion of autonomic failure in