Valerie L. Ng, PhD MD (Alameda County Medical Center/Highland Hospital)

This is a compilation of hematopathology facts.

The purpose is to provide an overview and study guide for medical students, residents, and fellows interested in or training in hematopathology.

The intended audience is medical students, residents, and fellows in hematology/hematopathology training.

This is truly a useful study guide for all things hematology and hematopathology for the beginner. In its 405 pages, it covers a breath taking scope of material, moving quickly through disorders of RBCs, platelets, and coagulation to lymphoid disorders, leukemias, and lymphomas. The two final chapters focus on flow cytometry and molecular pathology. The author is true to his intent - this broad a scope in such a limited space necessitates conciseness, brevity, and relatively superficial coverage. Yes, each chapter is laden with key facts, but there is no further discussion, in-depth information, or references for those wishing to dig deeper. The color photomicrographs are of acceptable but not outstanding quality. The index has some surprising omissions -- for example, under the heading of "Factor,"FII, FV, and FX deficiencies are listed, but not FVIII or FIX; when searching under "hemophilia," there is only a single listing for hemophilia B. There are occasional typographical errors (e.g., p. 307, "associated" instead of "associated"). One nice feature is inclusion of 218 test questions, with accompanying photomicrographs as necessary, a really useful "just in time" study guide.

I'd recommend this book if you are about to take your hematopathology or clinical hematology boards. Review it and if you know most of this information, you are probably adequately prepared.