• DOI:10.1007/BF00404662
• Corpus ID: 23231888

Book review

@article{Gross2004BookR,
  title={Book review},
  author={Franz Gross and C. G. Schmidt},
  journal={Pharmacologia Clinica},
  year={2004},
  volume={1},
  pages={149}
}

• F. Gross, C. G. Schmidt
• Published 2004
• Medicine
• Pharmacologia Clinica

Since its appearance in 1955 this m o n o g r a p h has become one of the s t anda rd t ex tbooks on hyper tens ion and the second edi t ion is sure to consol idate its f avoured posi t ion wi th in the vas t l i t e ra tu re on b lood pressure. This is no t jus t a revised vers ion of the original manusc r ip t bu t a new book conta in ing all the r e l evan t findings m a d e in the field dur ing the in te rvening period. I n addi t ion, the au thor ' s concept of essential hyper tens ion as a quan t i t i ve va r i a t ion f rom normal , invo lv ing polygenie inher i tance and env i ronmen ta l factors, is p resen ted in a mos t lucid w a y which makes i t difficult to disagree wi th his conelusions. The chapters on the (nonexistent) d iv id ing line be tween normaI and raised ar ter ia l pressure and on the inher i tance of hyper tens ion m a y still sound unusual or even p rovoca t ive to some people, bu t t h e y will find i t h a r d no t to accept the evidence offered and the logical inferences d rawn f rom it. Ano the r mos t i m p o r t a n t approach which has no t been so consis tent ly pursued before is the re la t ionship be tween high blood pressure and var ious forms of vascular diseases. The in te rdependence of funct ional changes of blood-pressure regula t ion and morphologica l lesions in ar ter ies and ar ter ioles is extens ively t r ea t ed in var ious chapters of t he vo lume and documen ted b y i l lus t ra t ive case histories. Needless to say, effective an t ihyper t ens ive the rapy , which became establ ished dur ing the per iod be tween publ ica t ion of the first and second edi t ions, is discussed in detai l , inc luding the mos t recent deve lopment s and wi th ma jo r emphasis on the effects on life expec tancy and complicat ions of hyper tens ion. The clinical pharmacologis t will find m a n y s t imula t ing par t s referr ing to his special in teres t and will f requen t ly be reminded of the au thor ' s scientific origin the School of Sir Thomas Lewis, who pract ised and t a u g h t elinieal pha rmaco logy long before i t was so called, and founded "Clinical Science", the first journal in the field. Thanks to the fact t h a t the au tho r has worked on exper imenta l and clinical aspects of hyper tens ion, the book is well ba lanced and equa l ly compe ten t in referr ing to work in animals , in which e levat ion of blood pressure was achieved by exper imenta l methods , and in deal ing wi th the var ious forms of the h u m a n disease. Most useful to the reader , a summar iz ing c o m m e n t is g iven a t t he end of each chapter , h ighl ight ing the mos t significant resul ts and conclusions. Out of the vas t l i terature a cri t ical and va luab le select ion has been m a d e and the t i t les of near ly 2000 papers are given. The index has been careful ly p repared and is mos t useful. Going th rough this book makes i t ev iden t wha t an enormous effort i t is t o d a y to wri te a m o n o g r a p h on a special and well-defined subject like h igh blood pressure. There is no t only the mass of l i t e ra ture to be considered, bu t i ts er i t ieal select ion and compila t ion. We are lucky t h a t there are people able to do this work for us, and we should be gra teful when the resul t is no t only convinc ing bu t p resen ted in such an in imi table way. A great book, wr i t t en by a dedica ted scientist , a wise man, and a good doctor . F. GRoss