This monograph, one of a series on major problems in pathology, provides a cursory view of normal and diseased muscle. The easily read text contains well-reproduced micrographs.
An initial chapter on normal muscle adequately summarizes the events occurring during embryonic myogenesis. A paragraph on muscle spindles lacks modern concepts of structure and function in this long-ignored but most important receptor.
The description of denervation-induced ultrastructural changes should more forcefully emphasize the concept that most alterations depicted could well be nonspecific and disuseengendered.
Sections on numerous neuromuscular disorders enumerate the classical light microscopic changes, which, I am afraid, have not served so well in the past to advance our understanding of neuromuscular pathophysiology. The author does, however, delineate some recently elucidated histochemical, ultrastructural, and electrodiagnostic changes.
Neuromuscular disorders of any magnitude usually immobilize the involved part and thereby initiate disuse changes. Unfortunately, these changes, as observed by light or electron microscopy,