Clinical Immunology: Principles and Practice has emerged from this concept of the clinical immunologist as both primary care physician and expert consultant in the management of patients with immunologic diseases. It opens in full appreciation of the critical role of fundamental immunology in this rapidly evolving clinical discipline. Authors of basic science chapters were asked, however, to cast their subjects in a context of clinical relevance. We believe the result is a well-balanced exposition of basic immunology for the clinician.
The initial two sections on basic principles of immunology are followed by two sections that focus in detail on the role of the immune system in defenses against infectious organisms. The approach is two-pronged. It begins first with a systematic survey of immune responses to pathogenic agents followed by a detailed treatment of immunologic deficiency syndromes. Pathogenic mechanisms of both congenital and acquired immune deficiency diseases are discussed, as are the infectious complications that characterize these diseases. Befitting its importance, the subject of HIV infection and AIDS receives particular attention, with separate chapters on the problem of infection in the immuno compromised host, HIV infection in children, anti-retroviral therapy and current progress in the development of HIV vaccines.
The classic allergic diseases are the most common immunologic diseases in the population, ranging from atopic disease to drug allergy to organ-specific allergic disease (e.g., of the lungs, eye and skin). They constitute a foundation for the practice of clinical immunology, particularly for those physicians with a practice orientation defined by formal subspecialty training in allergy and immunology. A major section is consequently devoted to these diseases, with an emphasis on pathophysiology as the basis for rational management.
