Rubin's Pathology: Clinicopathologic Foundations of Medicine (Hardcover)

~ Emanuel Rubin (Editor), Fred Gorstein (Editor), Roland Schwarting (Editor), David S Strayer (Editor) "Pathology is basically the study of structural and functional abnormalities that are expressed as diseases of organs and systems..." (more)
Key Phrases: osteogenesis imperfecta type, coarse cancellous bone, solitary osseous myeloma, United States, South America, Middle East (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Doody's Book Review Service, Leonor David, MD, PhD --

"This is the fourth edition of a book that presents a comprehensive clinicopathologic overview of human disease. The book has an excellent balance of medical nomenclature, molecular basis of disease, clinical features, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and pathology....

"The purpose is to give students in medical sciences the basic knowledge about pathology needed to understand and handle human diseases. The purpose is fully met through the book's careful and systematic approach that relates pathologic changes to clinical manifestations of disease....

"The book covers general mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of human diseases, using well selected models of cell/molecular biology based information....It includes the classic organ approach and innovative chapters on diseases like diabetes and amyloidosis, that serve as examples to give readers more in-depth information about relevant diseases with a lot of new information from recent years. Drawings, diagrams, and images are of excellent quality.

"This is an excellent book where students, researchers, and professionals in medical sciences will find 'pathology literacy,' as the editor puts it in the preface. The clinicopathologic approach used throughout and the excellent quality of figures and illustrations are major advantages of this book compared to others in the field."—Four-Star Review from Doody's Book Review Service (Weighted Numerical Score: 95)

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 15-SEP-04, Volume 292, Issue 11, Syed A. Hoda, MD and Rana S. Hoda, MD --

"The three main challenges in writing a textbook about introductory general and systemic pathology are to inspire the physicians of the future, demonstrate relevance to modern medicine, and keep the covers of the book not too distant. The latest incarnation of Pathology, rechristened Rubin's Pathology: Clinicopathologic Foundations of Medicine, seems to have met each of these challenges with substantial success....

"True to its subtitle, the book does not lose sight of the clinical context....The text is terse, illustrations are illuminating, diagrams are discriminating, and tables are tidy. Together these resources provide the necessary integration of information....

"Emanuel Rubin, the editor-in-chief, eloquently expresses the raison d'etre of the book in its preface: '[L]iteracy in pathology is the bedrock of practice and research for the student of medical science.' The contents of this opus serve as a reminder to the physicians of tomorrow that ignorance of pathology will immensely imperil their understanding of the disease process."—Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

Pathology Faculty, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine -- "The Rubin pictures are better and the text gets to the point quicker. It also has a more elaborate discussion on diseases, more examples too. An example of this would be in the area of cancers of the lung. In Rubin the discussion starts on pg. 646 and runs through pg 656. Robbins doesn't cover specific types of tumors of the lung, Rubin does. In Robbins the content starts on pg. 757 and goes through pg 765. The miscellaneous tumors are listed and that's all. Rubin first gives background on the tumor, then the pathology and then how the disease shows up clinically. Robbins is a good reference text that should be in a clinicians office but it's not as good as Rubin for the medical student. They need to know how the disease shows up clinically and then how to treat it. As he put it, the students in medical school are trying to become physicians not pathologists."

Product Description

Substantially revised with hundreds of new schematic drawings, photographs, and micrographs, the Fourth Edition of Rubin's Pathology maintains the clinical approach that is ideal for medical students. This edition is packaged with a brand-new electronic supplement--the Virtual Pathology Slide Set. Students can view digital slides of microscopic specimens with "virtual microscope" viewer software that enables panning, zooming, and magnification. Every copy of the textbook comes with a CD-ROM containing 5 specimens. Faculty and schools wishing to license a more complete set of 100 virtual slides on DVDs can license the Virtual Pathology Slide Set.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1608 pages
• Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Fourth Edition edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781747333
• ISBN-13: 978-0781747332
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #821,406 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One syllable removed from and leagues behind Robbins, February 7, 2009

By	Dr. Loo (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rubin's Pathology: Clinicopathologic Foundations of Medicine 5th Edition (Hardcover)

As a Jefferson medical student who took classes with the very writers of this text and who also owned Robbins in addition to Rubin's, I cannot recommend anything but Robbins to anyone who wants to really understand what they are learning because it is the gold standard of pathology, and there's a reason for that.

Rubin's book is solid and relatively well-written, but all the topics covered are very superficially discussed. For some people, that's ok; for a med student who needs to understand concepts rather than memorize facts, that's not. I have worked with the residents in the pathology department here at Jefferson, and guess which book they use? Robbins. A lot of the time, it almost seems like Rubin's is paraphrasing Robbins in much looser terms - at times, it's confusing. I will admit that one good thing about Rubin's is that it mentions a few disease processes that may not be mentioned in Robbins, but it ends there - the diseases are simply mentioned. You may know that they exist but not have a clue what they are.

The particularly weak sections of Rubin's are the clinically relevant ones and the illustrations. These pathologists are excellent at what they do, but they are not clinicians; in describing clinical features of different diseases, they usually just state the signs and symptoms observed, but sometimes you may wonder why those things make sense and are left with no explanation.

The illustrations are hit or miss - some are great and demonstrate the point the author is trying to get across. Others look like they were taken with a greasy lens by a drunken photographer, which is problematic when looking at the histology. Also, there aren't many side-by-side photo/photomicrograph comparisons of different processes involving the same tissue or organ; when there are, it seems coincidental that they have found two pictures of the same tissue and just throw them together.

I realize this isn't a review for Robbins, but I urge you to look at that book before investing the same amount of money in this one.

Why you might think Rubin's is better than Robbins:
1) slightly smaller (6.2 pounds vs. 7.4 pounds, according to Amazon)
2) more "concise" writing
3) many photos and photomicrographs!

Why Robbins is actually better than Rubin's:
1 & 2) Smaller does not mean better! You are not going to read every word in either book, so it doesn't matter that Robbins is a little wordier and longer. When you need to look at a textbook for reference, Robbins will make you understand. Rubin's will only give you a cursory look at what you would like to know.

3) Robbins has many photos and photomicrographs, and every single one is crisp and in focus. That is ESSENTIAL for looking at histology! If you go to a bookstore and browse Rubin's, you will see what I mean about the blurry pictures. A few examples in the 7th edition include figures 9-58, 18-9 B (not a single nucleus is in focus), 20-57 B & 20-62 (too dark and blurry), and many others that are out of focus, poorly lit, or both.

4) Overall, Robbins is a book very well put together that its authors created with the goal of teaching students. There are far fewer typographical and grammatical errors than in Rubin's, which I think speaks to its meticulous editing. The pictures are well selected - perhaps even taken especially - for the text. Robbins explains pertinent normal anatomy and physiology pretty in depth in the beginning of each chapter before presenting the abnormal, whereas Rubin's assumes you know most of it and gives extremely brief background.

(NOTE: If you are a Jefferson student looking to buy Rubin's, again, please save yourself the time/anguish. Yes, every picture on your exams will come from this textbook, but you will have access to those pictures on a review presentation every single time.)

In the pathology world, you will never hear anyone call Rubin's the "bible" of pathology. Please do yourself a favor and buy the brand new, updated version of Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access (Pathologic Basis of Disease (Robbins/Cotran))

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rubin's has a place..., March 27, 2009

By	An avid fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rubin's Pathology: Clinicopathologic Foundations of Medicine 5th Edition (Hardcover)

I used Robbins in graduate school but also had purchased a copy of Rubins for undergraduate courses. As other reviewer mentioned, Robbins wins hands down for explaining the detailed processes behind the selected pathological condition. Rubin's work fits in between Big Robbins and Small Robbins. And for some students, its "just right". I enjoyed the graphics more in Rubins rather than Robbins, but will acknowledge its limitations with regard to content. I still tend to gravitate towards Rubin's text before I pick up Robbins from the bookshelf. It might be the physical exertion involved to lift up the Robbins.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for reference, too much for a single course, July 15, 2006

By	Pete Gramp "[e-mail]" (Schwenksville, PA USA) - See all my reviews

Simply put, this is the end-all be-all when it comes to pathologic analysis of disease states. Typically this is for 2nd year Medical School Students and/or Pathology trainees. Unless you are going into pathology as a sub-discipline, you may be overloaded with this information. If you want a concise primer on all things pathology, look into "Essential Pathology" by Rubin, which is intended as a summary of the 4th edition seen here. Of note is that the Essential Pathology does not include the CD-Rom that comes with this book, which is the best pictorial-based review I've ever seen -- worth the cost of the book alone!

To expand, IF PRESSED ON TIME, DON'T GET THIS ONE! If you are willing to spend the time and effort required for a HUGE book like this (over several semesters), your money will be well spent. As a book itself, this one has 5 stars easily; as a text for a course, I'd give 4 1/2, only for the overabundance of information for a short period of time.

I have had Dr. Rubin in classes (and some courses using the same text but with other Thomas Jefferson University professors), and the man is a genius in the field. This is just one student's opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, but I mention this only to describe the wealth, if not overabundance, of information contained within this book.