Veterinary Echocardiography, 2nd edition, by June Boon is known as the veterinary cardiology bible to many members of the veterinary community. Being the 2nd edition of this “bible,” Boon has adjusted the format to make it more user-friendly and therefore more enjoyable to veterinarians and veterinary technicians. The text seems to flow very nicely from one topic or chapter to the next without a feeling of being lost or not completely understanding the authors’ explanations from the previous chapter. At the end of each chapter is an extensive list of references.
There are 10 chapters with the first chapter taking the reader though the necessary topic of ultrasound physics. Chapter 2 walks the reader through the echocardiographic exam and the various views that to be obtained. Boon includes techniques for both large and small animal imaging. A detailed description, including pictures of hand and patient positioning as well as text book focus points, is used to describe how to obtain these various views. Chapter 3 moves onto M-mode and Doppler studies including discussions on the usage of spectral, color flow and tissue imaging. Each view is described and includes a picture shown of patient and hand positioning, text boxes with focus points as well as pictures of the desired image. Chapter 4 details what to do with information obtained from the images acquired in chapters 2 and 3 such as how to measure chambers, velocities, ventricular function, regurgitant flow, and pressure gradients.
Chapters 5 – 10 change the focus to cardiac diseases encountered and discerned from the information acquired from the previous chapters. Chapter 5 covers acquired valvular disease touching on mitral, aortic, tricuspid, and pulmonary regurgitation as well as endocarditis. Equations are given which relate to the various measurements obtained as well as normal values are also given in text boxes for the various measurements. Chapter 6 discusses hypertensive situations such as pulmonary and symptomatic hypertension with normal values and features given in text boxes and tables, and equations are given for the values acquired. Chapter 7 examines myocardial disease and discusses the various cardiomyopathies as well as endocardial fibroelastosis, myocardial infarction, and myocardial contusions. Chapter 8 tackles pericardial disease, effusions, and masses and includes topics such as cardiac tamponade, pericardial effusion caused by neoplasia, idiopathic effusion, infectious and constrictive pericarditis, abscesses, cysts, and thrombus. Chapter 9 examines congenital shunts, AV valve dysplasia and discusses patent ductus arteriosus, ventricular septal defects, aorticopulmonary window, and right to left shunting PDA, atrial septal defects, endocardial cushion defects, atrioventricular valve dysplasia, and bubble studies. Finally, Chapter 10 discusses stenotic lesions, plunging into outflow obstructions, inflow obstructions, and Tetralogy of Fallot. Following the chapters are appendices for echo values for bovine, canine, equine, feline, and miscellaneous species.
Boon did an awesome job with this book just as she did with the first edition. The multitude of echo pictures, patient positioning pictures, and hand positioning photographs are all very helpful to the user/reader. This is a wonderful book and would be ideal to have in any practice that does echocardiography and it will continue to be the bible for the veterinary echocardiology exam. It is definitely a book to be consulted by veterinarians and veterinary technicians alike.
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (2011)
588 pages, hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-8138-2385-0