Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine

This second edition of Dr Braunwald's book on heart disease is of the same excellent quality as the 1980 edition. It has been improved by several new chapters. The new chapter entitled "Electrocardiography and Vectorcardiography," by Charles Fisch, provides a good review of abnormal patterns of the ECG with the vectorcardiographic equivalents, including ECG patterns related to electrolyte abnormalities, drugs, and specific arrhythmias. There is an interesting review of the mechanism of arrhythmias derived from ECG analysis, including a discussion of exit and entrance block and the gap phenomenon. In view of more recently introduced cardiovascular examinations, a separate chapter "Nuclear Resonance Imaging of the Heart," by A. B. Ratner and G. M. Pohost, has been added. D. P. Zipes presents a new 42-page chapter on "The Genesis of Cardiac Arrhythmias: Electrophysiological Considerations." In addition to reviewing the basic anatomy and electrophysiological principles of the cardiac conduction system, it offers