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Book review
Skeletal Muscle Pathology, Diagnosis and Management of Disease Victor Preedy and Timothy Peters, Editors, Greenwich Medical Media: London, 2002, 716 pages, price $199.00 US. This is a multiauthor, up-to-date review of the different skeletal muscle disorders. The book brings together several investigators, 100 in total, with expertise and research focus in the various aspects of muscle disease. The text is, on the whole, well written, richly illustrated and thoroughly documented. The book is divided into 58 chapters covering a medley of diagnostic studies (including biochemical markers, histological, ultrastructural, histochemical and immunohistochemical assessment of muscle biopsies, electophysiologic studies, skeletal muscle imaging, and assessment of muscle function by isometric tests) and the various skeletal muscle diseases (including mechanism of muscle pain, inflammatory myositis, genetic and congenital myopathies, metabolic diseases, infections, and muscle injuries). The chapters on steroid misuse in athletes, alcoholic myopathy, HIV myopathy, inclusion body myositis, AMP deaminase (myoadenylate deaminase) deficiency, biochemical markers of skeletal muscle disease, and immunomodulation in skeletal muscle disease are of particular interest. It would have been useful to include an introductory section outlining the book's theme and objectives, a broad classification of muscle disorders in children and adults, and a chapter dedicated to the structure, metabolism, physiology and function of normal skeletal muscle. In the chapter on inflammatory myositis (a better term than "inflammatory myopathies"), the clinical presentation, natural history, prognosis, pathogenesis, diagnostic studies, myositis-specific antibodies and differential diagnosis of proximal muscle weakness and of elevated serum creatine phosphokinase are briefly discussed; to be truly useful to the clinician, however, these require further expansion. The question of management was not addressed. Another concern is the duplication of related chapters, (e.g., chapters 34 and 42, and 19 and 54), which could have been combined into single, cohesive, comprehensive sections. Notwithstanding these caveats and inequities of content, Skeletal Muscle Pathology is a useful, well researched reference textbook. Its greatest strength lies in the quality of some individual chapters. The book provides a valuable, user friendly, easy-to-read resource, not only for pathologists but also for rheumatologists, neurologists, internists, pediatricians, and physiatrists. Adel G. Fam, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, Division of Rheumatology, Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5 |