Review
This book of approximately 100 pages, together with an audio CD, is an excellent guide to heart and lung sounds. The book is very thorough and complete and at the same time small enough to fit into a (fairly large) pocket. It is written by three experts in the field of cardiac and respiratory auscultation.
The book provides step-by-step instructions on how to identify, interpret and differentiate normal heart and lung sounds, abnormal heart and lung sounds, murmurs and arrhythmias. Complete with pre as well as post reading 'test', the book and CD will tell you how much of different heart and lung sounds you already knew before entering the 'course' and how much you have learned from reading the book and listening to the CD.
The book is divided into four chapters as follows: Heart sounds, Murmurs, Arrhythmias, and Lung sounds. Each chapter begins with clearly stated objectives followed by a pre-test to evaluate your level of knowledge beforehand. After reading the text and listening to the CD there is an appropriate post-test to evaluate what you have learned. Bothe simulated sounds and natural sounds from clinical cases are presented on the CD. Simulated sounds allow the listener to focus on heart sounds without the distraction of breathing sounds and artifacts. Natural sounds of murmurs and abnormal respiration are included to represent the clinical situation. Graphic presentations of ECG's and phonocardiogram's accompany the heart sounds for clarity. This appears to be a very efficient way on conveying knowledge to the reader. Each chapter is also equipped with tables for a quick reference of differential diagnoses for different auscultatory phenomena, making the book very useful as a handbook to be used in day-to-day practice.
In summary, this book and CD are excellent tools to help learn the difficult art of auscultation and is useful for the veterinary student as well as the experienced clinician.
Anna Tidholm, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ECVIM (S)
European Journal of Companion Animal Practice, Vol. 17 (1) April 2007
About the Author
Francis W.K. Smith, Jr., DVM, DACVIM, Veterinary Telemedicine Group Inc., Lexington, MA; Bruce W. Keene, DVM, MSc, DACVIM, Department of Companion Animal and Special Species Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; and Larry P. Tilley, DVM, DACVIM, Santa Fe, NM
