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Cowell, R. L. (ed.). Veterinary Clinical Pathology Secrets. 392 pp. Elsevier Mosby, St. Louis, MO, 2004. $39.95. ISBN 1-56053-633-0.

Veterinary Clinical Pathology Secrets is part of the Secret Series® of specialty review texts intended for veterinary students, practitioners, and residents. Content includes hematology, lymphoid neoplasms, acid base disorders, serum chemistries, urinalysis, cytopathology, and nonmammalian (avian and reptilian) clinical pathology. The book is an edited compilation of chapters authored by 16 veterinary clinical pathologists and five clinical pathology trainees. It follows a question-reply format, with questions asked and then answered via short paragraphs, lists, and/or tables. This serves the book's intent well, by providing focused, easy to absorb, packets of information. While not intended as an atlas, frequent (166 photos) good-quality black-and-white images nicely supplement text, although images in the erythrocyte and leukocyte sections would benefit from cropping and enlarging. The book's content is generally time-tested basic clinical pathology drawn from larger veterinary clinical pathology and internal medicine textbooks and review papers. It includes one surprisingly big bonus—approximately 23% of the book's content consists of a nonmammalian clinical pathology section, which offers a nice summary of the hematology, chemistries, and cytopathology specific to these animals, as well as a discussion of traits shared with mammals. The lymphoid neoplasm section notably deviates from the others by its focus on a specific disease type and by its emphasis, which is a heavily annotated discussion of signalment, epidemiologic data, physical signs, history, treatment protocols, and outcome, with less emphasis on typical clinical pathology data and even less information on immunophenotyping markers and the methods now being applied to these disorders. Stated criteria for diagnosing lymphoid leukemias are not standard, in that acute and chronic lymphoid leukemias are defined as marrows with 20–30% lymphocytes, confusing this limit with blast thresholds used to distinguish acute myeloid leukemias from chronic myeloid leukemias, myelodysplasia, and hyperplasia.

This book is not meant as a primary text, but rather as a review, and will be appreciated as such by veterinary students preparing for state boards, nonclinical pathology residents preparing for specialty boards, and clinical pathology residents in their 1st or 2nd year of training. Practitioners and pathologists may want to consider this book for its sizable section on avian and reptilian clinical pathology.

Dr. P. M. McManus

School of Veterinary Medicine Laboratory
Laboratory of Pathology & Toxicology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

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