27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Resource, January 20, 2007
This review is from: Cardiovascular Physiology Concepts (Paperback)
I purchased this book to help me review for the cardiology section of first-year physiology course in veterinary school. Although the book focuses on the human heart, it has great descriptions of ion-channels, vector-loop diagrams, the cardiac cycle, neurohumoral regulation, and more with review questions for each chapter to help you learn the material. My only complaint is that the images are not in the beautiful coloring seen on the front cover but are primarily grayscale with a few red lines throw in. Regardless, the text and figures included were immensely helpful in improving my understanding of te material.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding, November 13, 2011
This is my first book review on Amazon, and that is really a tribute to this book. Despite having gone to a reputable medical school, CV physiology was taught to me as a series of overly-detailed lectures that made it hard to construct the forest from the proverbial trees. Since then, now a resident in Internal Medicine, and having been inspired to go into the field of Critical Care, I knew that I couldn't let this fractured knowledge-base continue for much longer. I had come across the author's website during med school (cvphysiology.com) and recently revisited it. I then bought this book and read it cover-to-cover. Out of the many reasons to praise his work, I think my vote goes to his ability to explain concepts WITHOUT simplifying them. Although paradoxical-sounding, this separates his book out from the rest of the sea of possible purchases. It is easy to make concepts understandable but so simplified that they are literally not clinically useful (e.g., the Made Ridiculously Simple series). On the other hand, probably more common, there are books which lose sight of the fact that the reader is learning, not reviewing what is already known. CV Physiology Concepts finds the balance, and in the end, is clinically very applicable.
To Dr. Klabunde, thank you for your authorship of such a useful tool for med students, residents, and seasoned physicians, to better grasp the important aspects of CV physiology. Certainly, I will be spreading the word about your book to my colleagues.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
hands down the best cardio book you will ever find, January 25, 2012
This review is from: Cardiovascular Physiology Concepts (Paperback)
I almost never write reviews, but I had to write this when I saw this book had less than 5 stars. I can't understand how a reviewer would give this book 4 stars instead of 5 because it doesn't have color. I finished kindergarten a while back, so I'm sorry if color isn't exactly on my list of priorities. Another reviewer also gives it 4 stars because he's getting back at his professor? are you kidding me? are these high school students writing these reviews?
In my two years of medical school this is the second best book I have read. The first book? How the Immune System works by Sompayrac. The reason I bring up the other book is because if you've read it, you will instantly know the kind of standard I'm holding this cardio book up against.
I read this book in one sitting (it's ~200 pages). I was very weak on electrophysiology, so it took me about 15 hours to get through it. You can probably do it in 5 -- it's just that I took my time because my cardio final is in a few days, and I have time to read this book only once, so I took very extensive notes while reading it. Also, I just had one full day to devote to normal physiology.
It's obviously normal physiology - almost no path at all. I thought the best thing about this book was the electrophysiology chapter. That chapter alone is worth buying the book for. It really breaks things down. I guess my medical school sucks when it comes to explaining concepts. They complicated the crap out of the mechanism behind digitalis/digoxin, and this guy explains it in one sentence. I thought the tables, figures, and graphs were amazing, especially the graphs. I'm one of those people who gets tachycardia every time I see a graph, but for some reason I found myself getting excited when I would come across one. Let's just say that this dude knows how to draw graphs. Also, the second half of the electrophysiology chapter is devoted to EKGs. The funny thing is that he tells you in the beginning that you would need to buy an EKG book if you want to learn how to read EKG pathology because he doesn't cover it in depth -- however, I thought he explained everything perfectly. We had 2 hours of lecture devoted to EKGs at my school, and this guy pretty much covered everything in just a few pages.
One thing that surprised me about cardio books on amazon is that for some reason, the people writing the reviews are very liberal in giving 5 stars (except when it comes to this book for some reason). For example, pathophysiology of heart disease is highly rated, yet I thought it was a very crappy book. "The only EKG book you'll ever need" also has very good reviews, but is also a very crappy book in my opinion. Dubin's book wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't give it the kind of reviews it has on Amazon. So for the first time I found myself not trusting the reviews on Amazon and went ahead and bought this book. Also, the author's website (cvphysiology.com) is amazing. I've spent a lot of time on it, so when I found out the guy has a book, I jumped at it. Do yourself a favor and get the book too. And stop listening to reviewers who are looking for coloring books.
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