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Reviews and Notes: Cardiology: Clinical Manual of Electrophysiology

Clinical Manual of Electrophysiology Igor Singer and Joel Kupersmith; eds. 453 pages. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins; 1993. $68.00. Perhaps the most difficult job confronting the teacher is explaining a complicated field to the novice. The expert wants to describe the subtleties that he or she is personally excited about but often does not invest the time to construct for the student the background assimilated after decades of work. Although Clinical Manual of Electrophysiology, edited by Singer and Kupersmith, attempts to provide an integrated textbook for the novice or the generalist, it often falls short of its stated purpose. With several notable exceptions, such as the chapters on the evaluation of syncope, pacing, and the long Q-T syndrome, most of the discussions do not include sufficient background to instruct; rather, they merely provide checklists of topics that are shrouded in jargon without explanation. Although the text is well referenced, few primary data are actually presented and specific controversies are either ignored or glossed over. The chapters are not well integrated into cohesive groupings and the internal organization of the individual chapters is lacking. Most importantly, little of the information is presented in such a way to facilitate clinical decision-making by a physician who was not already acquainted with the field. The chapters on pacing are excellent but written on a level more appropriate for physicians who have previous experience with pacemaker insertion and follow-up. Clinical Manual of Electrophysiology is a reasonably comprehensive text and would be useful for cardiologists or cardiology fellows who want to begin a more focused education in pacing and electrophysiology. Internists and generalists without a focused interest in and a considerable amount of background knowledge of cardiac electrophysiology will probably not benefit from reading it.