Pathophysiology and pharmacology of capillary resistance (dedikált példány) [antikvár]

FOREWORD I was greatly honored when Dr. Miklós Gábor asked me to write a preface for his monograph, the 'Pathophysiology and Pharmacology of Capillary Resistance' because we have followed bis original publications as they appeared in technical journals for more than two decades. Now that I have received the manuscript, I was particularly pleased to see that this volume is dedicated to the memory of Miklós Jancsó. He was one of the greatest and most original pathophysiologists of Hungary, whose contributions are recognized all over the world but are perhaps not as well-known in English-speaking countries as they deserve to be; I should like to start by congratulating Dr. Gábor on the elegant manner in which he begins his volume by trying to compensate for this neglect. It is no easy task to write a preface for this volume since it covers an enormous territory in three parts dealing respectively with the general physiology and pathophysiology of capillary resistance, its modification by drugs, and its regulation by natural hormones and hormone-like substances. The often loosely-used terms of 'capillary resistance', 'capillary permeability' and 'capillary fragility' are clearly defined and methods for the objective determination of capillary resistance outlined, indicating the diagnostic value of such determinations in various physiologic and pathologic conditions. It is now evident that there exist daily fluctuations of capillary resistance and that the phenomenon is also dependent upon seasonal variations: age, dietary factors, heat, ultra-violet irradiation, X-irradiation and many other factors. The latter include various stressors such as cold, muscular exercise, surgical trauma, emotional stress, etc. In reading this volume, it becomes increasingly more evident that further studies on the mechanisms regulating capillary resistance hold great promise. In particular, the author points out that studies on the relation between blood- and lymph-circulation, the formation of petechiae and inflammation in relation to capillary resistance would deserve much more attention than they have hitherto received. There are a number of clinical conditions such as infections, rheumatic and allergic diseases, scurvy, diabetes, hypertension and vascular haemor-rhagic diatheses in which capillary resistance is frequently subnormal. It appears that in several diseases, the determination of capillary resistance may be of diagnostic value. As we learned from this book, a number of drugs are now available which increase capillary resistance and, hence, a better understanding of such derangements in clinical medicine may open 7