Junqueira. Basic Histology

[Guest Ian Wong]

Basic Histology, 9th Ed. Junqueira, L. C., Carneiro, J., Kelley, R. O. 1998. Appleton & Lange. Stamford, Connecticut.

 

ISBN: 0-8385-0590-2

Chapters/Indigo.ca price: $61.95

Pages: 494

 

In the words of our most excellent Histology professor Dr. Ovalle, "Junqueira is the book used by all North American medical schools. It is a required purchase, not just a highly recommended one." Well, my own philosophy is that Junqueira is an excellent textbook, but unfortunately, a lot of Histology is not particularly clinically relevant. Great textbook, but for a bad subject. Before all the pathologists and oncologists in the crowd jump me, let me explain my opinion.

 

Histology is important in that it is valuable clinically to understand that oligodendrocytes in the CNS myelinate the axonal process of neurons, and that damage to these myelin sheaths can result in slowed impulse conduction and neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis. However, understanding the structural concepts in Histology, and correlating this to the associated pathological disease only requires you to be aware of the existence of the myelin sheath and the oligodendrocyte itself. I think it's simply overkill to design an examination that tests the student by showing them an electron micrograph of an oligodendrocyte, and asking the student to name the cell. How will that be clinically relevant?

 

I do think there are a lot of concepts that Histology will teach you that you will use daily, such as cancer invasion, importance of calcification, and lots of morphological terms that you'll encounter on pathology reports. I think though that being trained in the actual identification of examples of these concepts is a little extreme. It would be important for any doctor to be able to understand the pathologist's report, and take appropriate clinical action, but for example, I think it would be incredibly dodgy, not to mention medico-legally insane for a family physician or a surgeon to actually break out the microscope and attempt to make their own diagnoses.

 

Back to Junqueira itself. This book has excellent descriptions of each organ system, and histological slides (both light and electron microscope) to complement the text. The line drawings are clear and easy to follow. You might actually be surprised, and discover that this textbook is an excellent introductory read when you are starting a new organ system block. Conveniently enough, the book is organized by organ systems. For example, the circulatory system is covered in a mere 15 pages. In this chapter, you will summaries of the physical structure of vessels, in addition to some cardiovascular physiology and pathology.

 

By encountering the medical terms used in describing the anatomy here first, this may give you a better framework from which to base and understand your lecture notes. The book itself is extremely readable, with only a small amount of irrelevant detail. One big criticism of Junqueira is the lack of colour pictures, except for two pages of hematopoeisis. All slides are black and white (typical for EM, but a big pain for light microscopy, where colours really help with interpretation.) The diagrams are black and white as well, and are occasionally splashed with a bluish-gray colour as well.

 

At UBC, Histology labs are conducted each week, and Histology as a course is examined as it relates to each organ system block. Therefore, in the GI block, we encounter slides and descriptions of everything from the vermilion border of the lip, to the epiglottis, to slides of all GI organs down through to the epithelial transition in the rectum. As a result, if your curriculum is similarly Histology heavy, then Junqueira may be of a lot of benefit. Junqueira would be useful as well if you are contemplating a career involving either pathology or oncology. For everyone else out there, this is an excellent textbook for a not so useful subject. It can be a good introduction to your basic science organ system blocks, and you'll need to see for yourself whether you need that supplementation. Buy it if you have the money, but don't feel guilty if you don't.