Pathology of Ischaemic Heart Disease [antikvár]

Preface The purpose of this volume, as with other volumes in this series on Postgraduate Pathology, is to present in handy form the amount of detailed knowledge of the subject that the author believes a trainee pathologist should acquire during his training period. This is not necessarily equated to the requirements for any particular examination but relates to what a young pathologist, who is not a super-specialist in the particular field, might be expected to be familiar with concerning ischaemic heart disease. He will, of course, extend his experience and no doubt develop his personal opinions concerning controversial aspects of the subject during his years as a practising pathologist. There has been no attempt to make this an exhaustive reference book and only a selection of the more important and accessible references to the literature is provided at the end of each chapter. On controversial subjects the author's views are naturally given prominence but where they are grossly divergent from general opinion this will be made quite clear. An exception to the generalization concerning references will be found in the last chapter of the book, dealing with the still controversial subject of the relationship between hardness of water supplies and local death rates from ischaemic heart disease. This subject has been discussed and documented in more detail than have some other matters where the facts are more firmly and longer established. The author feels that this subject deserves special attention not only for the exciting possibilities that it opens up in terms of preventive medicine, but as an example of the way in which pathological surveys are required to lend substance and meaning to the data-collecting and statistical studies that are the primary activities of the epidemiologists. Furthermore, it seems probable that control of the modern epidemic of ischaemic heart disease is most likely to be achieved by a full documentation of aetiological factors and an understanding of how these factors exert their effects. It is in the development of this understanding that histo-pathology and experimental pathology are most likely to play a part. T.C.