Medical Immunology, Sixth Edition (Virella, Medical Immunology) [Hardcover]

Gabriel Virella (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0849396964 | ISBN-13: 978-0849396960 | Publication Date: March 28, 2007 | Edition: 6

With an abundance of illustrations, diagrams, and algorithms for a reader-friendly review of critical material, this Sixth Edition is fully updated and revised to clearly update and explore current diagnostic and clinical applications of immunology, as well as strategies for the modulation of immune response and the treatment of hypersensitivity, autoimmune response, and immune deficiency conditions. Organized into four sections that review clinical applications, methodological advances, immunological diseases, and cutting edge interventions, this guide leads readers through state-of-the-sciences technologies and demonstrates their implementation in day-to-day clinical practice.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 488 pages
• Publisher: Informa Healthcare; 6 edition (March 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849396964
• ISBN-13: 978-0849396960
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,896,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just say no, February 9, 2008

By 

Critical Thinking (FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medical Immunology, Sixth Edition (Virella, Medical Immunology) (Hardcover)

This book presents material in an unorganized and extremely difficult to understand manner. As a first time student of Microbiology you will need to supplement to this text. The paragraphs are dense. The charts are not helpful and there is failure to clarify many terms. The only redeeming quality of this book is some of the graphics.

3.0 out of 5 stars An okay choice., February 28, 2009

By 

Raheel - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Medical Immunology, Sixth Edition (Virella, Medical Immunology) (Hardcover)

The way it's set up, plain and packed text; and bw pics, it becomes kind of a dry read but the scientific content is fine.

2.0 out of 5 stars No color, and lacking references in text, October 28, 2008

By 

Paul Baker (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medical Immunology, Sixth Edition (Virella, Medical Immunology) (Hardcover)

No color. This means that histology slides are in gray scale (for example, figure 1, page 10). Therefore, you might want to get a histology atlas as well; this is inconvenient, but perhaps this book may be cheaper than the alternatives at the time of purchase.

Some schematics (e.g. Fig 3, p26) are hard to read because the contrast is low (alpha1 and alpha2 on MHC I). Low contrast issues seem to permeate the entire book (e.g. p337, 327, 303, 290, 216, 171, 160). This means that even if you are color-blind, this book would still present issues.

In addition, the book has too few gray scales. This is apparent when one looks at the patterns that are used to make up for lack of the right shade. They detract from the figures, e.g. p203 Western blot, p99.

The lack of nice figures may be a sign that the author wanted to preserve the original figures from the original journal articles that were influential (as some of the figures are from the 1970s). Or maybe the author didn't have time and had to bring together figures from a lecture powerpoint file.

Another issue: references. The figures are referenced, but the text is not. At the end of each chapter, there is about a page of references, but I don't see where exactly they fit into the text. Therefore, if you want to dig deeper into the evidence, you will be spending a lot of time on Pubmed (or another immunology text).

If I were a patient with an auto-immune disease, I would prefer that my doctor had used a better text. This book is also not for serious students of immunology, since the figures are difficult to appreciate and the text lacks references. Perhaps I have been spoiled by another immunology text that was a tad more colorful.

If you are taking the author's class, then maybe you can borrow this from the library and use another immunology text. If you really need the A then you should buy the book and bring it to office hours every time you have questions. Just avoid questions that are less than flattering of the figures.

If you are a grad student in the author's lab, then you should buy the text and leave it prominently lying about. Write your name prominently on the side of the book, so that your prof knows that it is YOURS (and not that of your fellow lab-mate). Refer to it (and its references) frequently in lab meetings.

It's obvious that the authors spent a lot of time making this book, and I hope that the next edition is better. If colors are too expensive, then maybe a website with color figures might be useful. If this has already been implemented, then this fact should be repeated prominently in the book.

In addition, the authors can improve the figures by using students. You can criticize your grad student's figures on his or her Powerpoint slides, make graduation contingent on good pictures, and then "borrow" those pictures. Make sure you insist on the original figures. Don't try to improve them yourself, for obvious reasons. Give a "summer internship" to a high school student or an undergrad with proven skills in Photoshop.

I think that this book would be okay for an undergraduate "pre-med" immunology class if the general student population is not rich enough to spend money on color texts. I hope to see an improvement in this book, so that it can effectively compete with currently more popular medical immunology texts. I wish the authors the best of luck.