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Excerpt
Author: Hurst, J. Willis, MD, Bibliographic Data: (ISBN: 0-8247-0513-0, Marcel Dekker, Inc., 2001, $165.00) 317 pages, hard cover. Subjects: Cardiology
DESCRIPTION: This is an introduction to electrocardiography with an emphasis on its use as a diagnostic tool by clinicians. Dr. Hurst starts the book with the review of basic principles of electrocardiography, as well as basic principles of learning: information, memory, thinking, and learning. PURPOSE: This text is another in the Fundamental and Clinical Cardiology series edited by Dr. Samuel Goldhaber. The purpose of the series is to facilitate the integration of rapidly advancing information for the clinician as well as the researcher. The purpose of this text is to review basic principles of electrocardiography which should be stored in the brain as images or memories. They are then used in the thinking and evaluation process that is required to interpret the electrocardiogram. AUDIENCE: The book is written for beginners, but this text could be enjoyed by any clinician who is familiar with the vector concept of electrocardiography. Absolute beginners would find this text book difficult, but residents and cardiology fellows should be able to learn much here. FEATURES: The text is divided into seven sections and a conclusion. Dr. Hurst starts with several pages on the learning process before going into basic principles of electrocardiography. He uses the vector approach to explain the P, QRS, and T waves. Depolarization and repolarization are well covered, as is the anatomy of the heart. There is a discussion of lead placement, including some unusual leads, such as the Fontaine leads for right ventricular dysplasia demonstrating the epsilon wave. There is a chapter on calculating the axis of the various waves and calculating the ventricular gradient. There are many illustrations from earlier texts and articles by Dr. Hurst, some of which are nearly 50 years old and now out of print. Each electrocardiogram is discussed in a legend that is somewhat extensive at times. The unique part of this text is a revisit and review of the vector method of interpreting electrocardiograms. ASSESSMENT: This is an interesting book on interpreting electrocardiograms by one of the master cardiologists in the United States. The text is well illustrated with scalar electrocardiograms and their vectorcardiographic approach to analysis, initially made popular by Dr. Robert Grant more than 50 years ago. Some of the illustrations are small given the page size of the book. The text covers the usual common electrocardiographic abnormalities. In addition, Dr. Hurst attempts to lend some clarity to the conduction system abnormalities in Chapter 16. Overall, this is an important addition to the electrocardiographic literature, and hopefully it will bring back an approach to interpreting electrocardiograms that always made more sense to me.
