Respiratory diseases represent one of the largest health problems word wide. Diseases such as asthma and the smoking related diseases are already common and increasing so we urgently need better approaches to treat or cure these diseases. At the same time, new respiratory diseases such as those associated with viruses threaten pandemics that challenge our national health systems.
With these continued challenges for new treatment with better patient care, clinical and respiratory researchers have sought better approaches to all aspects of patient care from improved diagnoses to superior therapies. This has lead to an explosion of new research with an increasingly better understanding of how to diagnose diseases and then develop new therapies. Thus, for example ever improving technologies for imaging lung disease have lead to increasingly better diagnoses, although challenges remain as we seek to further improve resolution. At the same time, the revolution in molecular biology, culminating with the publication of the complete human genome, has lead to hopes for finding more precise clues to disease susceptibility pathogenesis in genetic analysis. This is leading to new concepts in pharmacogenomics as we start to use new drugs, including those used for lung cancers, being directed at mutations associated with disease.
This is the first Encyclopaedia of Respiratory Medicine. It is our hope that it is comprehensive and captures the key aspects of current patient care, as well as the exciting developments in respiratory science that we all believe will eventually lead to better patient care in the twenty first century.
This encyclopaedia is comprehensive in scope and provides clinician and researcher with a snap shot of the current state of knowledge in respiratory medicine. All entries have adhered to a structured layout, starting with an abstract crystallizing the key facts and finishing with reading lists for those who want to delve further into the subject. In addition, most entries have a colour diagram designed to help understanding and provide a valuable aid for undergraduate and post-graduate teaching.
These are exciting times for respiratory medicine. We hope this encyclopedia will become a valuble tool for clinicians and researches at all stages of their careers from those beginning their carreers to those established but wanting to update themselves on the new developments.
Finally, we would like to thank our Advisory Editorial Board who helped so much in shaping the contents of this works, as well as the authors who wrote the articles and faced the challenge of condensing areas of respiratory medicine, often the subject of entire textbooks, into a short article of 4000 words or less.
Foreword
...
While acknowledging our rich history of discoveries about pulmonary and respiratory medicine— discoveries that were made by men and women whose names symbolize the great journey of this specialty—one must concede that the field experienced an extraordinary growth spurt beginning in the 1940s. Knowledge of respiratory physiology, which developed very fast during World War II, created a tidal wave of interest that continued for years afterward. The ability to measure and understand respiratory physiology and its alterations became a diagnostic tool, and it opened the door to therapeutic or respiratory support procedures.
But, then, in the 1950s and 1960s cell biology and subcellular research entered the scene. The potential of molecular biology and genetics was quickly recognized, and respiratory medicine appreciated that a better understanding of normal and disordered biological respiratory processes hinged on use of these new approaches.
Lung and respiratory researchers, impelled in part by the ever-increasing public health burdens of respiratory diseases, seized the opportunity. The stage was set for progress to occur. The architects of this ‘‘revolution’’ in respiratory medicine are well known; it is our good fortune that many have contributed to these four volumes.
Four volumes! ... Encyclopedia! ... Indeed, these four volumes truly constitute an encyclopedia of pulmonary biology and respiratory medicine!
Respiratory medicine is still growing. Because it is such a dynamic and exciting field, new investigators will almost surely want to be part of it. However, to do so they will need to know about the established state of knowledge that will be the basis of their work. New investigators in the science of respiratory medicine, whether interested in fundamental research or clinical research or application, will find ideas and inspiration in these volumes. All of the tools of the trade are assembled therein.
As noted, respiratory medicine has been a progressive and expanding field but, as is the case with many fields of medicine, the transfer of what we know to the general practice of medicine has been slow and limited. Translation, as it is called, is an emerging discipline in need of assistance; fortunately, the breadth of the knowledge presented in these volumes provides tools to facilitate this translation process.
This four-volume encyclopedia is, at once, both a tribute to the centuries of pioneering investigations in the field of respiratory medicine and a foundation for even greater accomplishments in the future. The presentation of all this knowledge in these excellent and comprehensive volumes can only serve to stimulate further work of equal or surpassing significance. The editors and the authors are to be commended for their contributions to this singular effort. Because of their work, respiratory science and medicine will advance faster and patients worldwide will be the beneficiaries.
Encyclopedia of Respiratory Medicine | GEOFFREY J. LAURENT & STEVEN D. SHAPIRO | 4 Volume Set | Elsevier | 2006
With these continued challenges for new treatment with better patient care, clinical and respiratory researchers have sought better approaches to all aspects of patient care from improved diagnoses to superior therapies. This has lead to an explosion of new research with an increasingly better understanding of how to diagnose diseases and then develop new therapies. Thus, for example ever improving technologies for imaging lung disease have lead to increasingly better diagnoses, although challenges remain as we seek to further improve resolution. At the same time, the revolution in molecular biology, culminating with the publication of the complete human genome, has lead to hopes for finding more precise clues to disease susceptibility pathogenesis in genetic analysis. This is leading to new concepts in pharmacogenomics as we start to use new drugs, including those used for lung cancers, being directed at mutations associated with disease.
This is the first Encyclopaedia of Respiratory Medicine. It is our hope that it is comprehensive and captures the key aspects of current patient care, as well as the exciting developments in respiratory science that we all believe will eventually lead to better patient care in the twenty first century.
This encyclopaedia is comprehensive in scope and provides clinician and researcher with a snap shot of the current state of knowledge in respiratory medicine. All entries have adhered to a structured layout, starting with an abstract crystallizing the key facts and finishing with reading lists for those who want to delve further into the subject. In addition, most entries have a colour diagram designed to help understanding and provide a valuable aid for undergraduate and post-graduate teaching.
These are exciting times for respiratory medicine. We hope this encyclopedia will become a valuble tool for clinicians and researches at all stages of their careers from those beginning their carreers to those established but wanting to update themselves on the new developments.
Finally, we would like to thank our Advisory Editorial Board who helped so much in shaping the contents of this works, as well as the authors who wrote the articles and faced the challenge of condensing areas of respiratory medicine, often the subject of entire textbooks, into a short article of 4000 words or less.
- GEOFFREY J. LAURENT & STEVEN D. SHAPIRO -
Foreword
...
While acknowledging our rich history of discoveries about pulmonary and respiratory medicine— discoveries that were made by men and women whose names symbolize the great journey of this specialty—one must concede that the field experienced an extraordinary growth spurt beginning in the 1940s. Knowledge of respiratory physiology, which developed very fast during World War II, created a tidal wave of interest that continued for years afterward. The ability to measure and understand respiratory physiology and its alterations became a diagnostic tool, and it opened the door to therapeutic or respiratory support procedures.
But, then, in the 1950s and 1960s cell biology and subcellular research entered the scene. The potential of molecular biology and genetics was quickly recognized, and respiratory medicine appreciated that a better understanding of normal and disordered biological respiratory processes hinged on use of these new approaches.
Lung and respiratory researchers, impelled in part by the ever-increasing public health burdens of respiratory diseases, seized the opportunity. The stage was set for progress to occur. The architects of this ‘‘revolution’’ in respiratory medicine are well known; it is our good fortune that many have contributed to these four volumes.
Four volumes! ... Encyclopedia! ... Indeed, these four volumes truly constitute an encyclopedia of pulmonary biology and respiratory medicine!
Respiratory medicine is still growing. Because it is such a dynamic and exciting field, new investigators will almost surely want to be part of it. However, to do so they will need to know about the established state of knowledge that will be the basis of their work. New investigators in the science of respiratory medicine, whether interested in fundamental research or clinical research or application, will find ideas and inspiration in these volumes. All of the tools of the trade are assembled therein.
As noted, respiratory medicine has been a progressive and expanding field but, as is the case with many fields of medicine, the transfer of what we know to the general practice of medicine has been slow and limited. Translation, as it is called, is an emerging discipline in need of assistance; fortunately, the breadth of the knowledge presented in these volumes provides tools to facilitate this translation process.
This four-volume encyclopedia is, at once, both a tribute to the centuries of pioneering investigations in the field of respiratory medicine and a foundation for even greater accomplishments in the future. The presentation of all this knowledge in these excellent and comprehensive volumes can only serve to stimulate further work of equal or surpassing significance. The editors and the authors are to be commended for their contributions to this singular effort. Because of their work, respiratory science and medicine will advance faster and patients worldwide will be the beneficiaries.
- Claude Lenfant, MD & Gaithersburg, Maryland -
Encyclopedia of Respiratory Medicine | GEOFFREY J. LAURENT & STEVEN D. SHAPIRO | 4 Volume Set | Elsevier | 2006