It has become increasingly clear through the whole extent of the past two decades that the pulmonary circuit occupies an important part in maintaining the homeostatic milieu in which the carcass as a whole.

It has become increasingly clear through the whole extent of the past two decades that the pulmonary circuit occupies an important part in maintaining the homeostatic milieu in which the carcass as a whole, and the pulmonary bed, as a specific entity, function.

Dr Said has brought together a distinguished collection of 49 contributors who review earnestly of what has become an important part of critical care medicine--namely, the rejoinder of the lung to acute injury. The work is arranged into four sections: structural, functional, and pharmacologic background; morphologic and pathophysiologic basis of lung injury; mechanisms of lung injury, including the part of granulocytes, free oxygen radicals, lipids, and peptides; and modulation of lung injury. In each section, individual chapters veil a specific segment of the major topic. Each chapter lasts with a large and sometimes exhaustive list of intimations many of which are generally received citations (through 1989).

Certain chapters merit to be singled out for their clarity of presentation and visual advantage Chapter 2, "Cellular Organization of the Aleveolar-Capillary Unit," by dint of Maya Simionescu, has a lucid and easily understood diction and is complemented by exquisite electron micrographs. Chapter 4 "Endothelium-derived Relaxing and Contracting Agents," on Thomas F. Luscher and Paul M Vanhoutte, is an extremely good grounding in the basics of that topic. Chapter 6 "Lung Peptides and the Pulmonary Circulation," is an admirable review of the physical localization of a number of physiologically active peptides in the pulmonary rule Chapter 7, on the remodeling of the pulmonary circulation in acute and subacute injury, and Chapter 17 onward oxidant injury, are also of the best Some of the graphics in Chapter 3 are not well reproduc yet this is a small complaint.

All the contributors have done an outstanding piece of work of making a complex enthrall understandable to a wide variety of readers, which should include pulmonologists, physiologists, pharmacologists, critical care specialists, internists, and anyone with an interest in learning more about the intricacies of pulmonary physiology in the setting of lung injury.

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