BOOK REVIEWS

MANTER AND GANTZ’S ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL NEUROANATOMY AND NEUROPHYSIOLOQY By S. Gilman and S. S . Winans, F. A. Davis Company, 218 p p , Phila.delphia, PA, 1982. $12.95 This book represents an updated edition of Manter’s and Gantz’s Essentials of Clinical Neuroanatomy and Physiology. The authors indicate that the purpose of this edition is to provide a short, but comprehensive over- view of the human nervous system primarily for begin- ning students, more advanced students approaching clinical problems, and individuals from other medical disciplines interested in refreshing their knowledge of the nervous system. This book does provide a com- prehensive survey of neuroanatomy correlated in some chapters with critical neurophysiological information and relevant clinical examples. The general format of this edition does not differ markedly from the previous edition. The initial chapter concerns a brief description of nerve cell properties and the basic organization of the nervous system. The following chapters discuss, sequen- tially-beginning at the spinal cord level, the anatomy and physiology of the neuraxis at different levels. The final chapters concern thalamic, basal ganglia, and cort- ical neuroanatomy and function.

This reviewer often found the book difficult to read. I t appeared that there was too great an attempt to be concise and yet comprehensive. As a result, a lot of facts were presented but not adequately tied together. The information presented is reasonably accurate, but in some chapters incomplete and confusing. Specific exam- ples of this occur in (a) the chapters dealing with specific somatic sensation in which the discussion correlating the Functional organization with the specific neuroanatom- ical pathways is difficult to follow, (b ) the chapter on the thalamus in which t h e discussion of specific and nonspecific nuclei is confusing because the terminology used is not consistent throughout the chapter, ( c ) the chapter on the basal ganglia in which the discussion of neurotransmitters is limited only t o the dopaminergic input although other neurotransmitters also are very im- portant clinically.

The physical format of the edition is improved over

previous editions. The use of highlighting the title head- ings helps to separate the topics for the reader. Further, the additions of half-tone and red ink significantly im- prove the clarity of the illustrations. In summary, this book has been widely used in the past by beginning med- ical students to gain an overview of the nervous system. This edition will continue to serve that purpose; how- ever, because it is not easy to read it will be most beneficial for those already exposed to the nervous sys- tem and who desire a short basic review.

RODNEY PARSONS, PliD Burlington, Vermont

MYASTHENIA GRAVIS: PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT Edited by David Grob, 902 p p , The New York Academy of Sciences, New York, NY, 1981. $I 81 .OO This voluminous compendium, of papers that were pre- sented at a conference held in December, 1980, is divis- ible into two broad areas. On the one hand, there are discussions dealing with properties of the acetylcholine receptor, and on the other, with the immune response to the receptor and the clinical manifestations derived from this response. The sheer length of this compen- dium (more than 900 pages) makes it rather difficult to perceive the coherence of the subject matter as indicated by the title of the symposium. Nonetheless, it demon- strates both the advances in understanding of this, fairly well-defined, clinical entity and its ever-increasing com- plexity.

Many expressions of both of these aspects can be found in the current volume, which constitutes the pro- ceedings of the sixth in a series of conferences on Myas- thenia Gravis (MG). Progress has been made o n all fronts: it is now well-established that this disease results from an autoimmune process against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. It is also well-accepted that MG patients have circulating antibodies to the receptor, and that reduction in the level of these antibodies improves the patients’ condition, at least temporarily. What still remains unanswered is the reason for the production of

236 MUSCLE & NERVE Mar/Apr 1983