Chris Roseveare, Consultant in Acute Medicine, Southampton University Hospitals Trust, UK

"Acute medicine is a part of the CCU series from Wiley which are a useful set of titles that allow the reader to encounter a range of acute medical conditions, 22 presentations that give the reader a reasonable overview. The start of the title is particularly useful as it goes over the ABCDE of acute triage of patients which is an essential skill to understand as a medical student approaching your finals and certainly as a doctor. Following this for the medical student the title usefully recaps history & examination skills for medicine before discussing important investigations and finally prior to the cases giving a lengthy easy to understand discourse on the ECG and how to interpret it.After the cases there is a self assessment section that tests the reader on the knowledge that they should have based on what the title has covered. Having used this book in part to revise for my finals, I found the difficulty & style of these questions to be similar to and a good reflection of what was encountered within the finals examinations.The disadvantage of this title I suppose is the small number of cases it has, although these cases cover a broad range of medical conditions/presentations that you could expect to encounter in the hospital there aren't that many. Other series such as the 100 cases series (by their title) cover a significantly greater number of clinical conditions/presentations, though not in as much detail, this may be more desirable to some.In conclusion this series of titles is well worth considering using for preparing for your finals examinations and others as an undergraduate medical student. It may however be worth you considering borrowing the title from your medical school or other library first and if you feel it is worth adding to your personal library, then doing so." (Medical Student, Lancaster University)"This is a great book for people who like solid answers to practical questions. Unlike some revision books this one is actually useful to doctors and not just medical students wanting to pass finals. It tackles common presentations, not rare conditions and is interesting to read." (The Murmer, August 2009)

• Preface viiAcknowledgements ixHow to use this book xList of abbreviations xiPart 1 Basics 1Introduction and specialty overview 1Approach to the patient 5Part 2 Cases 28Case 1 A 45-year-old man with ‘cardiac-type’ chest pain 28Case 2 A 35-year-old woman with ‘pleuritic’ chest pain 37Case 3 A 50-year-old man presenting with palpitations 47Case 4 A 60-year-old man with a broad complex tachycardia 56Case 5 A 25-year-old woman with acute asthma 62Case 6 A 60-year-old woman with an ‘exacerbation’ of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 70Case 7 An 86-year-old woman with acute shortness of breath 79Case 8 A 68-year-old man presenting with shock 88Case 9 A 55-year-old man with suspected upper gastrointestinal bleeding 94Case 10 A 60-year-old man with diarrhoea 103Case 11 A 37-year-old woman with sudden severe headache 111Case 12 A 21-year-old man presenting following a seizure 118Case 13 A 22-year-old unconscious man 125Case 14 A 64-year-old man presenting with unilateral weakness 136Case 15 A 60-year-old man presenting following a blackout 145Case 16 A 45-year-old man with acute confusion 152Case 17 An 81-year-old woman with acute confusion 158Case 18 A 25-year-old woman with acute hyperglycaemia 166Case 19 A 73-year-old man with abnormal renal function 173Case 20 A 55-year-old man with pyrexia of unknown origin 182Case 21 A 25-year-old woman admitted following an overdose 191Case 22 A 35-year-old woman with an acutely swollen leg 200Part 3 Self-assessment 205MCQs 205EMQs 211SAQs 216Answers 219Appendix: Normal ranges units and common abbreviations for blood tests 229Index of cases by diagnosis 231Index 233Colour plate section can be found facing p.148