This manual is written as a guide for small animal practitioners, and its contributors include specialists from several countries and disciplines, encompassing internal medicine, critical care, and clin ical pathology. A handbook of just over 300 pages, it covers 3 areas that deal with the diagnosis and treatment of hematological diseases and with transfusion medicine. Approximately half of the book, the largest section, is devoted to hematology; a third deals specifically with hemostasis; and about 50 pages cover transfusion medicine.
The hematology section includes an overview of diagnostic techniques in hematology, and touches briefly on interpretation. The 2nd chapter details bone marrow sampling and interpretation. Bone marrow inter pretation, while interesting and beyond the scope of a manual directed mainly towards practitioners, provides background on the indications for bone marrow evalu ation. There is a chapter on anemia in general and another that covers specific erythrocyte disorders: iron deficiency anemia, anemia of chronic renal disease, and immune-mediated anemia, as well as 2 parasitic dis eases, feline hemobartonellosis and canine babesiosis. Other infectious diseases that may be associated with inclusions in hematopoietic cells are mentioned briefly within chapters. Of these, leishmaniasis could have received more attention, given its geographic distribu tion. There are 6 sections devoted to leucocytes: disorders of leucocyte number; leucocyte function; specific leucocyte disorders, including neutropenia, eosinophilia, and leukemia; and a subsection on feline retroviral infections, which also covers retroviral-associated anemias.
The section on hemostasis is very practical and well covered. It provides chapters on a general overview of hemostasis, as well as chapters on diagnostic techniques, disorders of platelet number, function, and disorders of secondary hemostasis. Another section specifically covers immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, von Willebrand's disease, hemophilia A, anticoagulant rodenticides, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.
The final section on transfusion medicine includes a chapter on procedures, including donor selection, compatibility testing and blood product preparation, and storage and administration. A general discussion of blood groups in this chapter is followed by a final brief chapter, specifically on feline blood groups. Finally, a 1-page appendix provides common hematological ref erence ranges for the dog and cat.
In authoring a book that is both of broad scope and detailed, it is difficult to avoid a certain degree of redundancy when diseases are addressed in more than one section. Confusion may arise, however, in using different terms or definitions for the same or similar diseases: examples include, the term paraneoplastic polycythemia in one chapter being referred to as physiologically inappropriate secondary polycythemia in another, or varying definitions of (pure) red cell aplasia, which is touched upon in several chapters. This practical book is easy to read and very well illustrated with numerous, high quality color photographs; helpful tables; diagnostic flow charts; and a well-designed index. As such, it is an invaluable reference manual for the student or small animal practitioner. It also provides sufficient detail for trainees in the fields of internal medicine, critical care, and clinical pathology.