Textbook of Practical Physiology, 6th Edition

Textbook of Practical Physiology has been greatly appreciated by students, residents, members of faculty, laboratory technical officers, and practicing physicians in India and abroad for about two and a half decades. The popularity of this book can be attributed to the fact that it fulfils all the requirements of students and teachers—imparting detailed knowledge of techniques, helping to develop practical skills, and guiding their application in physiology and medicine. With the introduction of the revised NMC CBME – 2024 curriculum, there is a clear shift towards an evidence-based, objective-oriented, clinically-focussed, and skill-based, integrated curriculum. Particularly notable are the new directives for ‘Early Clinical Exposure (ECE)’—starting from the first year and allowing students to learn through real patient interactions and continuous assessments that use logbooks, OSPE (Objective Structured Practical Examination)/OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination), and structured practical training and evaluation conducted throughout the year at regular intervals instead of a single final practical exam. Textbook of Practical Physiology was the first book on the subject to introduce learning objectives, objectivised structured methodology, and organised assessments. The inclusion of OSPE as part of practical assessment was first introduced in this textbook in its inaugural edition in 2001. Various sections of this sixth edition of Textbook of Practical Physiology—including those on hematology, human experiments, and clinical physiology—have been thoroughly revised as per the revised NMC CBME – 2024. The edition has also been fortified with new chapters on assessment of body composition, basal metabolism and obesity, energy cost of work, bicycle ergometry, demonstration of arterial pulse tracing, carotid sinus reflex, venous blood flow, venous pressure, and triple response, demonstration of H reflex, demonstration of physiologic blind spots, stereoscopic vision, dominance of the eye, subjective visual sensation, mechanical stimulation of the eye, demonstration of near point, near response and range of accommodation, demonstration of Purkinje–Sanson images, ultrasonography as a pregnancy diagnostic test, and demonstration of masking of sound and localisation of sound. A major highlight of this edition is the enhanced VIVA section in each practical chapter, where answers to all questions are now provided with precise references to the corresponding page, paragraph, heading, subheading, figure, and table. The number of viva questions and answers has nearly doubled in every chapter. Another special feature of this edition is the incorporation of a new section—Section V: Graphs, Charts, Calculation and Problem-Solving Questions—which includes three new chapters to further facilitate the understanding of intricate but important concepts, clinical applications, problem-based learning, and analytical interpretation of various physiological measurements (calculations). Several new flowcharts, figures, and tables have been added to simplify the perception of applied and clinical concepts. This book is specially designed for step-by-step learning through practicals and experiments, which are vital to medical students seeking to develop expertise in clinical medicine. Many illustrations have been meticulously revised, redrawn, and re-represented to facilitate the assimilation of various techniques. The sixth edition of the Textbook of Practical Physiology is a comprehensive practical textbook on the subject for undergraduate and postgraduate students of physiology and medicine.