Jacobs & DeMott Laboratory Test Handbook with Key Word Index, 5th ed / Laboratory Test Handbook Concise with Disease Index, 2nd ed

Jacobs & DeMott Laboratory Test Handbook with Key Word Index, 5th ed. David S. Jacobs, Dwight K. Oxley, and Wayne R. DeMott, eds. Hudson (Cleveland), OH: LexiComp, 2001, 1031 pp., $64.95, hardcover. ISBN 1-930598-42-4.

Laboratory Test Handbook Concise with Disease Index, 2nd ed. David S. Jacobs, Dwight K. Oxley, and Wayne R. DeMott, eds. Hudson (Cleveland), OH: Lexi-Comp, 2002, 1348 pp., $35.95, softcover. ISBN 1-930598-50-5.

The larger (hardcover version) of these two books "intends to overlap between the practice of medicine and the clinical laboratory" (page 2) to provide a guide to clinical laboratory tests. In 1031 (8.5 x 11-inch) pages of fine print, it largely succeeds. Most of the book is devoted to tests arranged by traditional laboratory disciplines. The attempt is to cover all of laboratory medicine; the authors lack neither ambition nor diligence. As...