当前位置: 首页 > 期刊 > 《新英格兰医药杂志》 > 2004年第19期 > 正文
编号:11306574
Tuberculosis
http://www.100md.com 《新英格兰医药杂志》
     This book, whose editor is from the Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia, concentrates mainly on the clinical aspects and treatment of tuberculosis. Of its 64 contributing authors, 29 are from Saudi Arabia; others, some of whom are well-known tuberculosis experts, are from Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. The international orientation of the book gives it an interesting point of view in the discussion of the historical aspects of tuberculosis. Most textbooks about the disease mention the evidence of phthisis in the remains of Egyptian mummies but then race centuries ahead to the dark, airless, overcrowded mills of postindustrial Europe, the cure cottages and sanatoriums on the banks of Saranac Lake, and the work of Robert Koch. The discussion of history here pauses in the 9th and 10th centuries to focus on the work of Islamic physicians whose writing describes the pathology and treatment of as'sul or ad'daran, otherwise known as tuberculosis.

    (Figure)

    An Anteroposterior Radiograph of a Patient with Advanced Bilateral Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

    Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The strength of the book is in its detailed look at the pathology and clinical aspects of tuberculosis on an organ-by-organ basis. Of its 50 chapters, 32 are devoted to the clinical, pathological, and treatment-related aspects of tuberculosis and provide many helpful diagrams, photographs of clinical specimens, and radiographs. The chapter on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in Saudi Arabia cites a national rate of 12 cases per 100,000. In a setting in which advanced diagnostic techniques and procedures are widely available and the incidence of tuberculosis is about two to three times that of the United States, there is an opportunity to see where state-of-the-art medicine and an ancient disease intersect. Included are extensive diagnostic images in the chapters on surgical management of thoracic and spinal tuberculosis and the imaging of musculoskeletal tuberculosis and a discussion of the disease among Saudi patients who have diabetes or renal failure or have undergone organ transplantation.

    The book also delves into the global epidemiology of tuberculosis, diagnostic methods, and molecular epidemiology of the disease. The changing face of tuberculosis in the developing world among patients who are coinfected with the human immunodeficiency virus is covered in a chapter that includes a discussion of the unique features of the clinical presentation and treatment of such patients. Comprehensive in its scope, this book is an addition to the several comprehensive textbooks on the clinical manifestations of tuberculosis and may be of value to clinicians with a particular interest in the disease.

    Renée Ridzon, M.D.

    Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

    Seattle, WA 98102(Edited by M. Monir Madkou)