The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7217 p461
28 September 2002

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Useful reference guide to heart failure

‘Heart failure in practice’, by Bernard S. P. Chin, Michael K. Davies and Gregory Y. H. Yip. Pp v+76. Price £14.95. London: The Royal Society of Medicine Press Ltd; 2002. ISBN 1 85315 487 3

Initial impressions of this book are favourable. It provides a concise guide and overview of the epidemiology, aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of heart failure. Chapters are laid out in a clear and logical fashion, with each one accompanied by relevant, simple diagrams. Important points are highlighted in boxes to emphasise the key learning issues. Overall the printing and layout is pleasing to the eye and encourages one to pick up the text and read it.

Each chapter is explained simply and thoroughly. For those wishing to learn more about the subject, further reading is also given.

The reader is expected to have some medical knowledge: unfortunately, the chapter on clinical signs and symptoms does not go on to explain, for example, what a "ventricular heave" is, or what an "S3 gallop rhythm" might be.

This book is similar in content and layout to the 'ABC of heart failure' published by the BMJ Publishing Group (indeed two of the authors are the same). However, it differs as the title suggests "in practice". The appendices give some useful practical guidance for the treatment and management of both acute and chronic heart failure, and suggest methods, pathways and protocols to establish a heart failure service, in both primary and secondary care.

It was a disappointment to note that, although the text has been written for primary and secondary health care teams, the pharmacist is not mentioned as a useful member of the heart failure multidisciplinary team. A pharmacist cannot have been involved in the proof reading, it seems, since the text refers to doxorubicin and adriamycin as both being agents known to cause heart failure; this is undoubtedly true, but did no one point out that they are one and the same drug?

Additionally, the issues of palliative care in this patient population were neglected, a topic that is currently of much debate, especially in light of the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease.

Overall this is a well-written, clear and concise text. It would be a useful reference guide for both students and practitioners alike.

Janet Lock