The seventh in the series of annual reviews by two distinguished editors, this volume encompasses eight chapters on the following topics: cardiac embryology, reflex cardiovascular control, catecholamines and the ECG, dietary and pharmacologic causes of pulmonary hypertension, viral myocarditis, hypertension and angina pectoris, new surgical procedures for congenital heart disease, and recent advances in peripheral vascular disease of the lower limb. This interesting assortment of topics, some theoretical and others practical, should interest cardiologists.
The first half of the book covers the first two topics in depth. These two chapters are scholarly and comprehensive but are of limited interest to practicing cardiologists. By contrast, the report by Taggart, Carruthers, and Somerville on the ECG response to the emotional stimuli of automobile racing, city driving, public speaking, parachute jumping, mountain climbing, and their relationship to catecholamines is helpful to clinicians. Elsewhere Heath and Kay note the effects of pyrrolidine alkaloids on