Book Reviews

Jlethoden in der Medizinischen Cytogenetik. H. G. SdHWARZACHER AND U. WOLF, Editors. New York, Springer-Verlag, 1970. $13.20. 186 pp. 50 figs. Techniques in cytogenetics have become universally useful in numerous disciplines. A book reviewing the methods used is therefore a welcome reference volume, essentially for new laboratories. This book certainly fulfills the requirements for such a reference item. Techniques are well reviewed from a theoretical and practical point of view and a number of alternatives are presented in clear cookbook fashion. The various authors are experienced in their fields and acquainted with the literature. There are a few minor problems. In chapter I, dealing with blood and marrow culture, the author doubts the usefulness of glutamic acid in the meditim, but what is generally recommended is glutamimie which helps in obtaining uniform results. In his discussion of one-way lymphocyte culture, he mistakenly recommends actinomycin instead of mitomycin. In chapter 2, dealing with fibroblast culture, the most common method is omitted, that is, the use of explants without plasma, cover slips or cellophane. In chapter 3, dealing with preparation of slides, there is too much mystique abotit how to handle cover slips since clean untreated cover slips work equally well. It should have been pointed out that Giemsa stain requires careful buffering. In chapter 5, the confidence table regarding mosaicism should be qualified as to whether chromosomes are missing or present as additional to the normal ntimber. A missing chromosome more likely can represent a technical artifact. In chapter 7, the use of orcein for sex chromatin analysis is omitted. Also, a number of laboratories have found that sex chromatin in fresh amniotic fluid cells is not reliable for sex determination. Aside from these few minor criticisms, the book, includimig additional chapters on autoradiography, meiosis and sex diagnosis from blood smears, is very well written and edited and is highly recommended for all laboratories dealing with these techniques. KURT HIRSCHHORN