Atlas of the Myocardium [antikvár]

FOREWORD Medicine, like art, relies on images. Most physicians begin their formal medical training with courses In Anatomy and Histology, which help to develop the visual skills needed to appreciate tre structural foundations of bodily function. As the curriculum moves to the more conceptual sciences of physiology and biochemistry, many students spend hours preparing and studying charts to understand such concepts as the Interaction between venous return and cardiac output, the metabolic pathways, and the workings of the sarcomere. In this manner, the interplay between visual images and intellectual concepts explains the workings of the human body in health and disease. In this Atlas of the Myocardium, two outstanding scientists collaborate with a great artist to carry fonward this interplay. Lucid images abound in these pages; they speak of the sources of the heart's energy, how it is spent in the contractile process that pumps blood through the body, and how these marvelous processes Interact and are regulated. Together, Drs. Ferrari and Opie have explained and integrated a series of concepts that tells us about cardiac contraction, electrophyslol-ogy, and metabolism. Through the art of Gabriele Stocchi, these concepts are set out in powerful illustrations that enable the reader to follow the Intricacies of the heart's function. Images of the normal heart are then used to show how physiology and biochemistry are disordered in Ischemic heart disease. This Atlas Illustrates well the view of R.S. Root-Bernstein, who in his article "Harmony and beauty in medical research" (J Mol Cell Cardiol 1987; 19: 1043-1051), wrote: "music, like the metabolic processes or physiology of the body, is a result of controlled synthesis of contrasts, rhythms, harmonies, and forms". The contrasts, rhythms, harmonies and forms of the heart, organized by Roberto Ferrari and Lionel Opie, are vividly expressed by Gabriele Stocchi, whose elegant and lucid illustrations, through the artist's craft, provide beauty as well as understanding in the following pages. Arnold M. Katz M.D. Professor, Department of Cardiology University of Farmington, USA