This little volume, originating in studies by the authors on intestinal absorption in congestive heart failure, presents a well-ordered, reasonably comprehensive review of the factors involved in overall energy metabolism in such patients. In the process, the multisystem physiologic aberrations of heart failure are noted and sometimes illuminated. A strong effort is made to organize available data and thinking in a meaningful way, usually with success.
The chief attractiveness of the book, in this reviewer's opinion, lies in its insistent physiological orientation and exploration of this common clinical syndrome, and we, as clinicians, are in the authors' debt for this and for the comprehensiveness of their review as well as for its extensive documentation.
They have considered dietary factors, metabolic abnormalities in congestive heart failure, abnormal losses of nutrients (including the nephrotic syndrome, malabsorption, and protein-losing gastroenteropathy), and iatrogenic factors as the primary areas in which the abnormalities leading to