This is the seventh (2007) edition of Pediatric Board
Certification Review. Readers of earlier editions have told me that
the Review has helped them not only pass, but also score high in the
Pediatric Board examination. While their success has confirmed the
relevance of the Review's material, their insights have inspired
suggestions to improve future editions. The present volume is in many ways
my response to those suggestions. ‘Key words’ are written to make the
diagnosis.
Medical ethics is a new and an important chapter in
this book. Biological and chemical terrorism are also added.
My goal was to make this edition even more useful than its
predecessors. Every chapter has been revised in the light of information
from journals published since the last edition. There are also more
important visual aids than ever before: 357 pictures (including x-rays,
sonograms, CT scans, syndromes, and skin lesions), 69 graphs, 84 tables,
and 11 EKGs. I have also provided answers to almost 5,000 indirect
questions. Some new pictures are added and some old pictures are deleted.
Traditional topics have by no means been neglected: audiometry,
tympanometry, growth curves, BAER, flow volume curves, hematologic
peripheral blood smears, glucose filtrative curves, L:S ratio curves,
postnatal development of organs, fetal hemoglobin curves, renograms,
radionuclide renography, urodynamic studies, and cardiac shunts for
congenital heart diseases are all well-represented. I can confidently
state that in no other single volume will you find as much information of
this type. If you need more in-depth discussion of a topic, however, by
all means consult your textbooks! This book complements them, but it does
not replace them.
Every important area of pediatrics has been
treated, either separately by system or intersystematically. Many key
points are repeated and highlighted throughout the text. There is also
something very important in this edition: a
"Miscellaneous" section
wherein you are likely to find important topics not treated in the main
chapters. Since the Board examination does not follow any predictable
order, let alone that of a preparation guide, you should have a sense of
that unpredictability before you walk into the examination room. The
"Miscellaneous" section will give you that sense. The “Miscellaneous”
section is extremely important.
My sincere thanks go to Josh
Furman for his continued support, L. Janacek for her clear diagrams,
Preeti Agarwal and Atul Kumar [email: atul_kumar@apyl.com] for their
first-rate desktop publishing expertise. For whatever room for improvement
yet remains, however, I alone am responsible.
They say good luck
is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. If that is true,
there is no need to wish good luck to those who apply themselves
diligently to this book, for they will certainly be prepared!
D. Kanjilal, M.D.
