Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Heart

could go on for several pages. Thus the book edited This book emphasizes the fundamental, functional aspects of cardiology. Within the last thirty years, by Sperelakis IS a potent reminder of the almost for­ the rift between clinical and investigative cardiology gotten fact that cardiology has twO sites, inextrica­ has widened, because of the overwhelming devel­ bly related. opment of new clinical procedures, both diagnostic The book deals with subjects in which Dr. Sper­ and therapeutic. Almost forgotten is the fact that elakis has pioneered: ultrastructure of heart muscle, we owe most of the clinical advances to theoretical electrophysiology, cardiac contractility, and ion ex­ and experimental observations. I need not remind change. An extension of these subjects is the chapter the reader of the work of Carrel, who performed the dealing with fundamental topics of the coronary cir­ first experimental coronary bypass in 1902, or the culation. work of the brothers Curie in 1880, both physicists, This book is indeed a timely reminder of the im­ who discovered piezoelectricity, the keystone in ech­ portance of the fundamental aspects of cardiology. ogradiography; of the works of Langley, who intro­ Emphasis on clinical aspects of cardiology alone will duced the receptors concept; of Ahlquist in 1946, result in a sterile and unproductive future for a field who first differentiated between alpha and beta re­ that has made such stunning advances during the ceptors; of Fleckenstein, a physiologist who pi­ last thirty years to the benefit of millions of people.