The result of modern pathological research, this book offers quickly accessible and clearly arranged information on the 29 most important diseases that belong to the complex of rheumatic diseases: It includes clinical features, helpful marginal notes, an extensive subject index, a comprehensive bibliography, and approximately 300 illustrations, most of which are light, electron, or scanning electron micrographs. The reader is presented with a useful basis for diagnostic considerations and therapeutic decisions. By intensively analysing disease processes and their stuctures and by integrating modern immunological and molecular biological knowledge, the author has succeeded in providing the different pathological entities with a more distinct profile. New results have been achieved, particularly in the fields of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Seronegative Spondarthritides, and Osteoarthritis.

Pathology and Pathobiology of Rheumatic Diseases glows with the uncommon precision of the pathologist, the clarity of the tea cher, and the unswerving commitment of the investigator. Fass bender has produced a major contribution to the literature of rheumatic diseases. The practical experience and wisdom brought together in this book, substantiated by excellent exam ples of histopathology, produce a landmark for all who have made the study of rheumatic diseases their profession. The enor mous achievements made in molecular biology, genetics, struc tural biochemistry, and clinical science have been assembled in this book to interact in a meaningful way with the anatomical histology of the rheumatic diseases. It is not easy for any single investigator to paint the picture of a disease process, from its clinical description to its mechanisms, and then to a defined hypothesis, and finally an understanding. Nonetheless, Fassbender has done this in a clear and convincing way that integrates our current knowledge of this group of dis eases. Scientific discovery in medicine moves from the bedside to the bench, back to the bedside, and then back to the bench, etc. It is this iterative process of new observation and new discovery that has given us the achievements in medicine over the past century."