Author Information
By Francis W.K. Smith, Jr., DVM, DACVIM, Veterinary Telemedicine Group Inc., Lexington, MA; Bruce W. Keene, DVM, MSc, DACVIM, Department of Companion Animal and Special Species Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; and Larry P. Tilley, DVM, DACVIM, Santa Fe, NM

Contents:
This complete resource gives you everything you need to perform accurate auscultation of the heart and lungs in dogs and cats. Use the helpful instructions, ECGs, and phonocardiograms in the companion book as a guide while the clear, easy-to-follow audio CD explains how to identify, interpret, and differentiate heart and lung sounds, including murmurs and arrythmias. Includes self-evaluation tests to measure what you already know and determine when you've mastered the material.



Reviews
This book of approximately 100 pages, together with an audio CD, is an excellent guide to heart and lung sounds. The book is very thorough and complete and at the same time small enough to fit into a (fairly large) pocket. It is written by three experts in the field of cardiac and respiratory auscultation. The book provides step-by-step instructions on how to identify, interpret and differentiate normal heart and lung sounds, abnormal heart and lung sounds, murmurs and arrhythmias. Complete with pre as well as post reading ‘test', the book and CD will tell you how much of different heart and lung sounds you already knew before entering the ‘course' and how much you have learned from reading the book and listening to the CD. The book is divided into four chapters as follows: Heart sounds, Murmurs, Arrhythmias, and Lung sounds. Each chapter begins with clearly stated objectives followed by a pre-test to evaluate your level of knowledge beforehand. After reading the text and listening to the CD there is an appropriate post-test to evaluate what you have learned. Bothe simulated sounds and natural sounds from clinical cases are presented on the CD. Simulated sounds allow the listener to focus on heart sounds without the distraction of breathing sounds and artifacts. Natural sounds of murmurs and abnormal respiration are included to represent the clinical situation. Graphic presentations of ECG's and phonocardiogram's accompany the heart sounds for clarity. This appears to be a very efficient way on conveying knowledge to the reader. Each chapter is also equipped with tables for a quick reference of differential diagnoses for different auscultatory phenomena, making the book very useful as a handbook to be used in day-to-day practice. In summary, this book and CD are excellent tools to help learn the difficult art of auscultation and is useful for the veterinary student as well as the experienced clinician. Anna Tidholm, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ECVIM (S) European Journal of Companion Animal Practice, Vol. 17 (1) April 2007



Key Features

NEW! Lung sounds are now included, in addition to heart sounds.
An easy-to-follow format simplifies learning.
Pretests may be taken prior to reviewing the CD to measure how much the user already knows.
Posttests help determine when the material has been mastered.
Clinically relevant conditions are included, making it easy for readers to apply this information to day-to-day practice.



New to this Edition

Lung sounds added
Many more heart sounds
Section on murmurs and arrhythmia expanded
Intros for each sound on the CD have been expanded to provide more information