Pathophysiology of Heart Disease: A Collaborative Project of Medical Students and Faculty Sixth, North American Edition

Lilly's is a solid textbook, but you have to remember the key words here are "pathophysiology" and "disease." Here's what the book doesn't do: lay out all of heart physiology at the beginning of the book and then proceed to pathology, like most introductory books do. Rather, it goes through categories of heart disease chapter by chapter, explaining relevant physiology as needed to understand the PATHOphysiology. The focus is really on the diseases, not giving a comprehensive and basic understanding of normal structure and function. Basically, the focus is reversed.Now, what does that mean for a medical student? So far (I'm about halfway through), I've found it an excellent supplement to my cardiology lectures, but NOT a replacement. In part, this is because I'm reading sequentially, meaning I read Ch. 8 Valvular Heart Disease before learning about pressure-volume loops (in Ch. 9 Heart Failure). My course's traditional lectures go the other way around, explaining the cardiac cycle, fluid mechanics, electrophysiology/ECG, pressure-volume loops, venous/cardiac function curves, etc. before we cover any diseases in detail. As a result, diseases I read in Lilly's before getting to in lecture, I understand very well conceptually and theoretically. But not so much for the normal function/physiology.For example, I understood the basis of pathologic Q waves at a level of detail not discussed in my lecture. But I don't always feel Lilly's makes it easy to understand what's deranged in every disease, because the focus is more on dysfunctional mechanism than on first establishing every normofunctional mechanism. That said, it's not like that for everything — the ECG chapter is really excellent and basically obsoleted my lecture (aside from not explaining how to precisely measure QRS axis).An ideal companion to this book would be a well-written, digestible physiology book. My med school recommends Guyton and Hall, although many of us (including me) instead go with Costanzo's Physiology. That's helped me understand any mechanisms that Lilly's doesn't nail, and then the strong explanation of pathology in Lily's completes the picture. I haven't read Guyton and Hall, but that might be preferable over Costanzo for venous/cardiac function curves — after all, Guyton was the one who did the experiments and constructed those curves.If you like understanding the theory of cardiac disease better than what your lectures and normal physiology texts will explain (possibly more than is strictly necessary, but hey, this is personal preference), check out Lilly's. Great reference.

Fantastic book, I've bought this book 2 years ago for my first year cardiology block at University of Sydney, and it basically taught me everything needed to pass that subject. You could easily read the book in a few days (less than a week), and come to terms with 95% of the cardiology in university. A real page turner, it also has a great narrative as well as the basic clinical knowledge. There is a summary at end of each chapter, which I recommend people to read before the actual chapter to get an overview of the topic at hand. The layout and diagrams are great, easy to understand and uses the right colour palette. The only thing that could be improved is the ECG section, however there are many exclusive ECG books on the market that could fill the void, so that is not a big loss.

I am a Cath Lab Tech, cross trained from a radiologic technology background. I chose this book to learn the pathophysiological reasoning for the things we do in the Cath lab. It is plenty in depth for me, but nothing over my head. I believe this book was key to me having a very easy time with the online RCIS Review course through Spokane Community College and was a big part of why I scored 94% on the RCIS exam.

Read this book cover to cover for my cardiology block in med school and did very well.If you're using it for a test I would recommend supplementing it with clinical vignettes in order to integrate the material and practice, but everything you need to know is in the book. It has more details than you'll be asked but it allows you to understand the concepts rather than just memorizing trivial information.Love this book.

Hard to believe that for under $40 you get such a high quality cardiac book. Excellent. I teach 4th semester nursing students and it's great to show them some good diagrams and pictures. It's a good read for nurses who care to understand more about what's actually happening. Couldn't recommend more. If you work with cardiac pts on a regular bases, keep this on your unit to refer to. You'll learn so much from basic patho, diseases, meds, and so much more.

Was so excited about getting this book because I’m a newer cardiac nurse and I wanted to study more in depth. But was sad to see my “new” book was definitely not new. However the inside is in perfect condition. Just upset with the outside. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of the return.Ready to study this book! Heard so many good reviews.

As a cardiac nurse and future NP i have a library of cardiac books. This is the best cardiology book i have read. The text is incredibly approachable and detailed. I love the break down of AV node and AV SVT along with other arrhythmias. Every pathological disorder is well explained in a way i use to teach my patients and future nurses. Very good book and a incredible resource for cardiology.

I needed all the help I could get with reading ECGs, and this breaks it down into an easy-to-follow systematic way of reading them and explains the pathophys behind ECG abnormalities really well. Didn't delve very far into the other sections, but it was worth it for the ECGs alone.