This is another edition of the medical dictionaries in the Oxford Quick Reference series. It covers all aspects of medicine.
Human anatomy is covered with full-page illustrations of the vascular system and the skeleton. Various tissues and organs are illustrated with detailed pictures; for example, the eye has a diagram showing the external muscle and another giving the cross-section. Drug classes and some of the more commonly used specific drugs are discussed. Trade names are provided for some drugs. (Checking out this, I found that beta as in beta blocker is spelt out.) Various types of medical equipment are described. Forceps has an illustration of various types for forceps. Body scanning and imaging procedures are described. Biochemicals, like specific enzymes, are included. Biological processes are also described. Specific diseases get entries. I chose to look at the entry for AIDS, because some years ago, I was a volunteer with an AIDS support charity. I also looked at the entry for hypertension, as I have recently reviewed the ABC of Hypertension (Beavers et al., 2015) (RR 2016/019). In both cases, the entries here were full and up-to-date. Organization and National officers are included. There are various general biological and statistical terms as well. One absent term is Biobank, which is an ongoing project to measure medical data in half a million people between the ages of 40 and 69 years; I am one of the sample, and so have a vested interest in the project. There are web links for many of the entries. These of course only work with the online version of the non-colour edition, but there is usually enough information to find the site with a search engine.
The book ends with 15 appendices. These start with SI units. The others are more interesting. They are biochemical reference values for blood, urine, faeces and cerebrospinal fluid, followed by haematological reference values. Next are paediatric reference values. Medical certificates and Doctor’s training grades are the next two. There is a list of inherited diseases. Units of alcohol in drinks and a formula for calculating this are given. The list is useful because wines and beer (and the like) can vary in ABV, and this is reflected in the data given here. And for the very young, baby milk formulations are given. For those in between, or for those managing them, there are street names for illicit drugs. There are two pages of websites. The last appendix is a list of abbreviations that might be used in doctors’ notes or when requesting and reporting tests. As people get to see more of their medical records, these appendices will help them understand what is being recorded.
This book is now in its sixth edition and will be of use to medical staff and their patients. As I scanned through the book, I came to the view that this is quite a lot that would be useful to biologists. When I wrote the hypertension review, I used this dictionary to look up various medical conditions mentioned in that book that I was not familiar with. The dictionary is described as a colour dictionary, but the colour is only a pink used to shade in parts of the drawings; however, this does make the diagrams easier to understand. The covers are plastic, which, given the number of pages in the book, is probably a good thing.
Like all the Oxford Quick Reference dictionaries I have reviewed, this book is highly recommended and good value for money.
