Wikramasinghe SN and McCullough J (eds):

Blood and Bone Marrow Pathology, 740 pp, Philadelphia, Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier Science, 2003 ($229.00).

This multiauthored textbook, edited by a hematologist from London and a transfusiologist from Minneapolis, was written by an international group of some 40 hematologists, hematopathologists, and transfusiologists, most of whom are from the United Kingdom. It covers the pathology of the peripheral blood and the bone marrow and disorders of coagulation. The last 85 pages are devoted to immunohematology and “transfusion medicine for pathologists.”

The book, published on high-quality paper and in a large format, contains numerous color illustrations and is physically attractive. The quality of text varies from one chapter to another, reflecting the attempts of various contributors to ‘strike a balance between biochemistry, pathophysiology, cytology, histopathology and clinical aspects’ of various diseases. Most of the chapters have a very strong clinical tilt and contain data important for diagnosis of hematologic disorders. Details about the processing of tissues and cells are also useful. One wonders, however, why some diseases are included and others are not, and why so much space is allocated to some rare diseases (e.g., transcobalamine II deficiency, to mention just one) at the expense of some more common ones. Electron microscopy, a technique used less often today than two decades ago, also seems to be overrepresented. Molecular biology probably would have deserved more pages. With a few rare exceptions, most photographs are of highest quality. The references are well chosen and current (mostly up to year 2000).