Ghadially - Ultrastructural Pathology of the Cell and Matrix vol 1

The laudatory reviews and warm reception accorded to the second edition of this book have encouraged me to produce a larger third edition which deals with many more ultrastructural changes and lesions. The task of cataloguing and classifying them is endless as David Lagunoff surmises in his review (Journal of the American Medical Association 1982, 248, 1246). He states: For his inhospitality to Perseus, Atlas was forced to bear the burden of the heavens through eternity. Sisyphus, for his greater transgression, became responsible for repeatedly pushing a large stone up a hill and on nearing the summit having it escape his grasp and roll down. I dont know if Ghadiallys task in producing his book was freely assumed or thrust upon him, but his labors seem closer to those of Sisyphus than Atlas. He has (in his own words) directed his efforts to cataloguing, classifying, describing and illustrating virtually every intracellular lesion. Each time he must think he is about to roll the last abnormality up his mountainous catalog, a new group of changes comes rolling out of the journals.

The task of producing this work was self-imposed in the mistaken belief that it would be quick and easy: by the time I discovered otherwise it was too late to turn back. I have, however, learnt that there is no better way of learning a subject than writing a book about it!

A substantial number of new ultrastructural changes and lesions have come rolling out of the journals. Incorporation of this new knowledge has been accomplished by adding 43 new sections and enlarging and rewriting several old ones. The remaining sections have been revised and updated. The number of: (1) pages has increased from about 950 to over 1300; (2) sections from 186 to 229; (3) electron micrographs from 885 to 1227; (4) line drawings from one to 26; and (5) references from about 3500 to a little over 5800. I trust these additions and changes will enhance the value of this book to those who examine pathological tissues with the electron microscope.

F.N. Ghadially

Ultrastructural Pathology of the Cell and Matrix is a revised and expanded second edition of Ultrastructural Pathology of the Cell. The change in title is necessitated by the addition of a chapter on the extracellular matrix (extracellular components). This was done on the advice of colleagues who felt that the usefulness of the book was marred by the omission of such common structures as collagen and elastic fibres.

I wrote the first edition of this book with the aim of cataloguing, classifying, describing and illustrating virtually every intracellular lesion within the covers of a modest-sized volume. It seemed to me that although this goal was clearly impossible to attain, striving to attain it might produce a useful book. The net result was that the first edition was never finished, it had to go to press when it had grown to a size and price apparently incompatible with economic viability.

The unexpected demand for the book, leading to two reprintings of the first edition have allayed our (publishers and authors) fears, and encouraged the production of a larger work that comes closer to the original goal or, to be more accurate, the expanded goal which now includes various extracellular components.

Altogether 56 completely new sections have been added. Many old sections have been enlarged and others rewritten or revised, and the book has grown from 560 pages to nearly 1000 pages. The number of illustrations has increased from 520 to 885 and the references from about 1800 to a little over 3500. I trust that this has enhanced the value and utility of this book to those who use the electron microscope to examine pathological tissues.

F.N. Ghadially

There can hardly be a disease or pathological process where electron microscopy has not added new details and dimensions to existing knowledge. The innumerable published papers and books on the ultrastructure of tissues altered by disease or experimental procedures bear eloquent testimony to the many major contributions made by this technique.

), there is as yet no book from which one may learn in a systematic fashion about the numerous changes that occur in cellular organelles and inclusions as a result of disease or experimental procedures. On confronting an unfamiliar or unknown morphological alteration in some particular cellular structure the questions that arise are: (1) has this been seen before? (2) if so, in what situations has such a change been seen? (3) what is the significance of the change? and (4) how can one retrieve information on this point from the formidable, scattered literature on the ultrastructure of normal and pathological tissues?