5th year med students perspective - P.Drew
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Specialist Training in: Cardiology was first published in 2005 and is edited by Henry J Purcell and Paul R Kalra. The book includes contributions from Professors, Consultants and Registrars located all over the UK and from a broad range of specialities.
Specialist registrars in both cardiology and general medicine are the main intended audience for this publication, however, Doctor's, nurses and students with an interest in cardiology would also benefit from using this book.
The book details both the pathophysiological and practical elements of cardiology as a speciality, whilst also including clinical complications, investigations and management of cardiological diseases. The book is up to date, factual and concise distilling detailed yet digestible information to the reader. The book makes use of a variety of formats including bullet pointing, boxed information, graphs and tables to give variety to the text and ensure that the information is displayed in the most beneficial way for those accessing it.
I found this book to have numerous strengths, most notably its format. The use of tables, graphs bullet points, high quality pathological photographs and microphotographs, along with images from cardiac investigations made the text come to life and enhanced the readers understanding and enjoyment of the book.
I also found the self assessment sections at the end of each chapter to be profoundly useful not only for reinforcing the content of the preceeding chapter but also to make the information more relevant and applicable. Whilst the questions were probably pitched a little high for my level I was still able to understand and address them. Whilst the book is mainly aimed at specialist training level the ability of medical students and lower grade medical staff to grasp the information and content is clearly an obtainable objective.
Additionally I felt that the book incorporated topics which are certainly highly relevant but are often overlooked by other text books, for instance the "fitness to fly" chapter gave a very succinct and informative insight into a topic which I have not yet seen detailed in any other cardiology text.
Whilst I am very much in favour of balanced reviews I myself could not find a single thing to fault in this text book. The style is succinct, the chapters short, use of diagrams and illustrations highly informative and attractive and all the information is reinforced with a self assessment section.
This is a book that I would definitely recommend!
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Super!
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This book provides a useful all-rounded knowledge base to cardiology,especially useful in answering those tricky essay questions. Chapters areseparated into epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, investigations,and discussion of indiviudal cardiac illnesses. There is more detailed information than one would find in a cardiology chapter of a standardmedical textbook and all the added information means that it is possible to score high marks in essay questions. Despite the detail in the textbook, I found it easy as a medical student to understand the terminology and the
easy colour layout helps to summarise points. There is an assessment section with each chapter, as well as a conclusion to summarise important points. This is good for that night-before-exam reading . I will definitely be using this book for my finals, as I have not found such a good cxardilogy read to
date.
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Good book for a hard subject!
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This is an essential guide to modern Cardiology, in well-explained and easy-to-digest chunks, serving both as a clinical accompaniment and reference text.
Topics include cardiac epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk factors, investigations and management and co-morbidities. Concepts are logically presented with clearly sign-posted headings, colour diagrams, pictures of pathological specimens or imaging (echo and ecg), ending with summary boxes, clinical cases, self-assessment questions and useful references.
This book is up-to-date and reflects current practice, whilst outlining potential future directions. It enables the reader to build a solid understanding of contemporary Cardiology, a core-medical subject, and would interest and benefit a diverse readership. Highly recommended!
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