Rezensionen/Book Reviews related topics of molecular biology, pathophysiology, epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, clinical management, and the frontiers of therapeutic research. To meat this goal, the editors required two volumes, a total of 1661 text pages plus an index of 40 pages, and 101 chapters written by 150 authors.
Volume 1 starts with introductory articles on the history of the discovery of cardiac function and related diseases and the epidemiology of coronary atherosclerosis. This first section then deals with the major risk factors and prevention, particularly with disturbancies of lipoprotein metabolism and hypertension. Section I1 is an in-depth analysis of the pathogenic principles leading to atherosclerosis. The chapter on transgenic animals as models for lipoprotein-related diseases is particularly valuable, but the following dozen of chapters comprising accepted and hypothetic pathogenic mechanisms are equally revealing for understanding of the complexity of the pathogenesis. With section III the book turns to the pathology of acute myocardial infarction thus laying the basis for volume 2 which is largely concerned with clinical aspects such as the value of various diagnostic procedures, the acute management of myocardial infarction from fibrinolytic therapy up to angioplasty and bypass surgery, and postinfarction medical care. In a similar approach sections IV and V cover unstable and stable angina, respectively, and the last section finally contains chapters on atherosclerotis manifestations outside the coronaries.
The individual chapters are well written by experts in the field and extensively referenced. In the majority of the cases they present as stand-alone mini reviews and the book would certainly benefit from cross-referencing to avoid redundancies which, infact, are legion (e.g. scheme of lipoprotein metabolism, structure of LDL receptor, and mutations thereof, tables of risk factors). Also, the reader would often appreciate a list of abbreviations in a book touching on so many disciplines and he sometimes feels lost when looking for helpful key words in the extensive index. But these shortcomings are obviously the price one has to pay when topical information in a rapidly developing field can only be provided by a multiauthor book.
In short, this opus will certainly become a standard reference book for everybody working in the field of atherosclerosis and, despite some minor editorial deficiencies, is worth the US $316.