An Atlas of Muscle Pathology in Neuromuscular Disease

Abstract

The authors in their preface state that in developing this book they have tried to answer the questions: "What are the fundamental reactions of muscle to disease?" and "With what clinical entities are these reactions associated?" The first two-thirds of the book is devoted to the first question. With a series of superbly clear illustrations and a brief account in the text they have admirably and tersely fulfilled their intent. They divide the fundamental changes in muscle in response to disease into ten different categories, including structural changes in the muscle fiber, changes in muscle nuclei, changes in fiber size, ringed fibers, sarcoplasmic masses, changes in interstitial tissue, leukocyte infiltration, changes in muscle spindles and peripheral muscular nerves, the presence of basophilic fibers, and the pattern of the lesion. In the last third of the book the authors set forth their clinical classification of neuromuscular diseases. There have been many