Reviewer: Jahn M. Nesland, MD, PhD (University of Oslo)
Description: This is the second edition of a book on diagnostic electron microscopy first published in 1988 (Igaku-Shoin Medical Publishers). The format is preserved and the book has 894 illustrations over 1,005 pages.
Purpose: The book gives a brief introduction to the ultrastructure of the normal cell, some embryologic aspects, diagnostics of neoplasms, infections, metabolic lesions, renal diseases, and finally skeletal muscle and peripheral nerve diseases.
Audience: The book is written for people doing diagnostic electron microscopy (EM) and for residents. Each chapter has an abundance of illustrations, mainly of ultrastructural features. Sometimes the selection can seem a little odd. A full 13 pages of figures from Wilms tumor can be too much compared to other lesions. The figures are large, often full-page, and repeating. The size of the whole book could easily be reduced dramatically without loss of information. It is, of course, nice to look at EM figures, but the way the authors have done it, the book is unnecessarily expensive.
Features: The selection of topics can sometimes seem a little peculiar. There is a chapter about leukemia, but lymphomas are mentioned more briefly. In the chapter on adenocarcinoma (and adenoma) the authors choose to present phyllodes tumor of the breast. Typical EM findings from studies of epithelial cells are presented, but the mesenchymal component is not discussed. Diagnostic problems related to phyllodes tumor, such as differential diagnostic problems versus cellular fibroadenoma and evaluation of aggressiveness are not mentioned. In the presentation of adenocarcinomas a table of differential diagnostic problems and key features should have been included. Tables with differential diagnostic alternatives and specific features to look for would have been of great help to the diagnostic electron microscopist. In addition, as the editor in chief mentions in the preface, modern diagnostic workup includes several techniques, including immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, molecular pathology, and image analysis. It would have strengthened the impact of the book if such information had been introduced in the text. The index is not always straightforward. If, for example, you look for phyllodes tumor, you must first look up breast and find phyllodes tumor as a subheading. On the other hand, Duchenne muscular dystrophy is listed both under myopathy, mitochondrial and as a separate index entity.
Assessment: I cannot recommend this book as a first choice for residents and diagnostic electron microscopists. Several other relatively recently updated books are on the market, published by well known electron microscopists like Feroze Ghadially, Bruce Mackay and Robert Erlandson. This book has a nice collection of EM illustrations from various lesions and is good to keep in an EM library, but for an introduction to diagnostic EM, other books are recommended.
