Customer Reviews

Case Studies in Immunology: A Clinical Companion (Geha, Case Studies in Immunology: A Clinical Companion)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The last reviewer's frustration is understandable given that this book is really meant for the medical student who has taken physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology in detail and has some clinical experience. It is most helpful for the senior medical student or resident taking an immunology elective--and even the immunologist studying for board exams! The reader must be already familiar with a lot of basic immunology in order to understand the figures without needing much explanation. I thought the book is excellent for synthesizing a very complex subject and adding clinical relevance.

Considering the serious dearth of well-written text companions and the prevalence of badly assorted notes in MS these days--this book is genius. If you want a good overview of disease causes and states, along with questions engineered to make you think (not deliberately trick you), then this is a solid immunology companion. Ignore that other reviewer.

A great book for anyone interested in clinical immunology. When used in combination with Immunobiology, the concepts are clearly explained. The added bonus of the lab science behind the clinical work is wonderful. I would not recommend this book alone unless the reader has an extensive background in immunology and is interested strictly in clinical presentations of immunological defects in humans.

My use of this book is probably a little different from most of the other reviewers here. My medical school immunology course used a different book (Lippincott's Immunology, which is passable); a year later, while studying for my USMLE step 1, I didn't want to waste time re-reading the basics in a textbook (i.e. I didn't need to read a 20-page chapter about the difference between innate and adaptive immunity). I also wasn't satisfied with the level of detail in my review books, which were fine for physiology but very weak in describing genetic immunodeficiency syndromes.

That's the benefit of this book-- the basics are there, but are integrated into cases alongside more "advanced" concepts. If you already have a good grasp on basic immunology (adaptive vs. innate, B vs. T, CD4 vs. CD8, Th1 vs. Th2), this is a much easier way to learn the complexities of immunodeficiency syndromes or autoimmune diseases (most of the cases in this book are one or the other). As such, I would definitely recommend using this book for a boards review of immunology (if you can spare a day or two from your review schedule to read it-- it's about 300 pages). It covers ALL the relevant immunology-- I can't imagine being surprised by an immuno question on test day if you know what's in here.

That said, I would NOT recommend this book as a starting point for learning immunology (and based on some of the other reviews here, that is unfortunately how it has occasionally been used). This was never meant to be a stand-alone immunology text, and I honestly can't imagine why it would be assigned as the text for an undergraduate introductory course. There are several good introductory immunology books out there-- the one I used is Sompayrac's "How the Immune System Works," but you have lots of choices. Once you have the basics, though, this book is excellent for making the jump to clinical immunology.

I pretty much have to write a review on this since it got me through medical school immunology. In a course that was poorly organised, this book went above and beyond in teaching me the basic concepts (the intricacies of the complement system can be difficult for a beginner!) and the really important molecular biochemistry essential to understanding how the immune system works. While there may be more details than you might need in terms of undergraduate medical education classroom exams, I bet that if you do an immunology rotation or something of the sort, you'll shine.

This book is solid and I'm holding on to it through med school. The reason being, it explains a ton of immunological disorders and the types of infections and co-morbidities you're likely to encounter in a patient with them. Also, I liked the little post-it note graphics on the pages with high-yield information. This book also goes through treatments your patient should get, and even down to the dosages which is super useful. I also liked how in each case you would get lab values/results and a breakdown of what each Ig was and what it should be normally, so you have guided learning. This book also has practice questions that help you get the material down rather well.

I studied this along with Abbas, but definitely spent more time with Geha & Rosen. Good luck!

Great Companion text for any immunology course. Shows clinically relevant cases and exemplifies how and why certain themes apply to medicine.

This book is a great companion to Janeway's Immunobiology! It allows you to read real life cases that relate to the material you are learning about in Immunology. Great Buy:)

it is really an excellent book with it's illustrations and the questions at the end of each case.

book came quickly and in the condition specified when i ordered it; could not ask for more

It was in excellent condition even with the few underlined sections or highlighted parts, in my opinion those only make text books more valuable.