Unknown
1118448240
Unknown
(This
02-18-2003, 04:09 AM
Ian Wong
Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, 5th Ed. Dubin, D. 1998. Cover Publishing. Tampa, Florida.
ISBN: 0-912912-02-2
Chapters/Indigo.ca price: $51.50
Pages: 342
This is a very useful textbook that most medical students recognise on sight. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that this modest-sized paperback is bound in a fluorescent Day-Glo orange cover. This might also be due to the fact that this book has universal notoriety among clinicians, at least in my experience. Dubin's EKG book has been published since 1970, which is long enough to entrench it deeply into this current generation of doctors. I've been recommended to read and learn this textbook's contents by several different physicians throughout Vancouver's teaching hospitals. Why? Well, the book has a very simplistic outline and is put together in such a way that you can skim the entire textbook in a few days or less.
The book follows a very standard format throughout all of its pages. On the top half of each page, there is a either a black and white line diagram or an EKG tracing. The bottom half of that page is text describing the information that you need to understand from the corresponding diagram or tracing. Throughout each chapter, there are fill-in the blank sentences that will test you on the material you have just read. These test questions help you realise whether you have actually taken in and absorbed the material, or whether you have fallen into the glazed-eyes zone where the information leaves your brain as quickly as it enters. I've actually seen the 6th edition at the bookstore this summer, but it seems as though the major change in the book was to add colour to all the diagrams. Functionally, I don't think that matters a great deal, as the content of the book remains essentially the same.
The book systematically takes you through the relevant cardiac physiology before introducing the concepts of reading an EKG. Only after you have been taught the conduction pathways of the heart will you be shown how the EKG machine operates and how the EKG tracing correlates to the heart conduction. On a quick skim through just now, I'd estimate that the first third of the book deals with cardiac and EKG physiology, and the remainder to different wave-forms encountered when reading EKG's. At the back of the book, there is an appendix cheat-sheet with a step-wise approach to reading EKG's and samples of various arrythmias and wave shapes that are characteristic for different diseases. This book covers only the diagnosis of heart diseases and doesn't discuss their pharmacologic treatment or other management strategies.
A few potential negatives to this book besides the lack of pharmacology are the occasional repetitive statements in this book as well as the lack of good practice EKG's. As you read through this book, you'll discover that many concepts are discussed repeatedly, often in adjacent chapters. This is good for checking that you've actually absorbed the material you are reading, but after a while, it can become aggravating, as it seems like you are slogging through a chapter without learning much new information. As far as practice questions are concerned, I think it's impossible to gauge your EKG prowess without testing yourself on several EKG's. There are only seven practice EKG's in the back of the book, which is no-where near enough to test all the concepts that are explored in this textbook. For this reason, I'd recommend looking into your local medical bookstore for EKG problem books that contain nothing but sample EKG's, and answers to them on the reverse page, along with a strategy to arriving at the correct solution.
This is a great book that will be useful during your cardiac block, but will become indispensable during your third year clerkships where you will need to gain mastery of many diagnostic tools in a short amount of time. Dubin EKG is a book that will give you a strong base and a good systematic approach from which to learn more complex EKG patterns. The ability to read EKG's isn't too important in either Med 1 or Med 2, but it will surface repeatedly in many of your clerkships, most notably Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia, Surgery, and Internal Medicine. You'll also probably see it frequently while managing patients in your Surgery rotation. For this reason, I really recommend getting a copy of this text. It will be helpful during your Cardiovascular block, and become more valuable during your clerkships. After you've used this book for some time, it might be worth checking for other books that supply many sample EKG's to practise your new diagnostic skills.
Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, 5th Ed. Dubin, D. 1998. Cover Publishing. Tampa, Florida.
ISBN: 0-912912-02-2
Chapters/Indigo.ca price: $51.50
Pages: 342
This is a very useful textbook that most medical students recognise on sight. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that this modest-sized paperback is bound in a fluorescent Day-Glo orange cover. This might also be due to the fact that this book has universal notoriety among clinicians, at least in my experience. Dubin's EKG book has been published since 1970, which is long enough to entrench it deeply into this current generation of doctors. I've been recommended to read and learn this textbook's contents by several different physicians throughout Vancouver's teaching hospitals. Why? Well, the book has a very simplistic outline and is put together in such a way that you can skim the entire textbook in a few days or less.
The book follows a very standard format throughout all of its pages. On the top half of each page, there is a either a black and white line diagram or an EKG tracing. The bottom half of that page is text describing the information that you need to understand from the corresponding diagram or tracing. Throughout each chapter, there are fill-in the blank sentences that will test you on the material you have just read. These test questions help you realise whether you have actually taken in and absorbed the material, or whether you have fallen into the glazed-eyes zone where the information leaves your brain as quickly as it enters. I've actually seen the 6th edition at the bookstore this summer, but it seems as though the major change in the book was to add colour to all the diagrams. Functionally, I don't think that matters a great deal, as the content of the book remains essentially the same.
The book systematically takes you through the relevant cardiac physiology before introducing the concepts of reading an EKG. Only after you have been taught the conduction pathways of the heart will you be shown how the EKG machine operates and how the EKG tracing correlates to the heart conduction. On a quick skim through just now, I'd estimate that the first third of the book deals with cardiac and EKG physiology, and the remainder to different wave-forms encountered when reading EKG's. At the back of the book, there is an appendix cheat-sheet with a step-wise approach to reading EKG's and samples of various arrythmias and wave shapes that are characteristic for different diseases. This book covers only the diagnosis of heart diseases and doesn't discuss their pharmacologic treatment or other management strategies.
A few potential negatives to this book besides the lack of pharmacology are the occasional repetitive statements in this book as well as the lack of good practice EKG's. As you read through this book, you'll discover that many concepts are discussed repeatedly, often in adjacent chapters. This is good for checking that you've actually absorbed the material you are reading, but after a while, it can become aggravating, as it seems like you are slogging through a chapter without learning much new information. As far as practice questions are concerned, I think it's impossible to gauge your EKG prowess without testing yourself on several EKG's. There are only seven practice EKG's in the back of the book, which is no-where near enough to test all the concepts that are explored in this textbook. For this reason, I'd recommend looking into your local medical bookstore for EKG problem books that contain nothing but sample EKG's, and answers to them on the reverse page, along with a strategy to arriving at the correct solution.
This is a great book that will be useful during your cardiac block, but will become indispensable during your third year clerkships where you will need to gain mastery of many diagnostic tools in a short amount of time. Dubin EKG is a book that will give you a strong base and a good systematic approach from which to learn more complex EKG patterns. The ability to read EKG's isn't too important in either Med 1 or Med 2, but it will surface repeatedly in many of your clerkships, most notably Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia, Surgery, and Internal Medicine. You'll also probably see it frequently while managing patients in your Surgery rotation. For this reason, I really recommend getting a copy of this text. It will be helpful during your Cardiovascular block, and become more valuable during your clerkships. After you've used this book for some time, it might be worth checking for other books that supply many sample EKG's to practise your new diagnostic skills.