Recent Advances in Rheumatology, No. 1, part 1: Underlying Mechanisms of Disease, part 2: Clinical Features and Treatment

Abstract

Each of these volumes contains seven review articles on important rheumatologic topics. They are the work of 26 contributors from the British Commonwealth and the United States under the editorship of two distinguished rheumatologists at the University of Glasgow and range in length from 69 pages ("Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in Man and Animals") to 15 pages ("Surgery of the Weight-Bearing Joints"). The authors are to be commended for the clarity and fairness with which they organize and present a voluminous literature, some of which is controversial or technically difficult. The division of the subject matter according to the subtitles of the volumes seems somewhat forced. Thus, the article "Polymyositis and Dermatomyositis," a slight revision of a review that appeared under the same title in the<i>New England Journal of Medicine</i>in February 1975, is almost entirely clinical, even though it is in part 1, which centers on pathophysiology. Several essays