Clinical Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Cardiologist's Guide.

Pashkow FJ, Defoe WA, eds. Baltimore, MD 21202, Williams & Wilkins, 1993, hardback, 391 pp, illus, $59.

As indicated by the tide, this book is written for physicians, and the preface states that the text is targeted at physicians "who need to extend their knowledge and involvement in the expanding area of cardiac rehabilitation." Despite being written primarily for physicians, physical therapists active in cardiac rehabilitation will find substantial portions of this book to be valuable.

The book is divided into four sections entitled "Current Perspectives in Cardiac Rehabilitation," "Diagnosis and Prescription of Exercise," "Clinical Considerations," and "Program Implementation and Function." The first section, addressing current perspectives in cardiac rehabilitation, contains three chapters covering the role of the physician in cardiac rehabilitation and in improving patients' quality of life. The second section, covering diagnosis of cardiac disease and prescription of exercise, contains four chapters addressing exercise electrocardiographic testing, metabolic testing, noninvasive cardiac imaging, and exercise prescription. This section is likely to be of value to physical therapists, especially the treatments of specialized topics including exercise and patients with cardiac transplant and the effects of beta adrenergic blockade on exercise training.

The third section covers rehabilitation of the patient with cardiologically complex problems, advances in lipoprotein metabolism, vocational issues in rehabilitation, smoking-cessation interventions, and management of anxiety and depression. The section on cardiologically complex problems is very relevant to physical therapists active in cardiac rehabilitation. The fourth section addresses organizational issues in chapters covering program organization, legal liability, and an often neglected topic, patient compliance.

The individual chapters are written by knowledgeable authors who have included numerous clear, informative figures and tables and up-to-date references. Although targeted to physicians, the majority of this book will be useful to physical therapists active in cardiac rehabilitation or to those contemplating becoming active in this field.