Abstract
I have to admit to feeling a little intimidated when this book appeared on my desk for review – at over 2000 pp. and weighing in at a hefty 5.4 kg, it is not a slim volume to slip into your pocket and carry around the lab or the wards with you! It is lovely to look at though, even at first glance – well laid out with coloured subheadings breaking up what could otherwise be somewhat dense text, and a good number of diagrams and illustrations. There is also a section of colour plates at the centre of the book with over 70 figures, showing histology slides, clinical signs, radiology images, etc. These certainly benefit from the extra resolution and colour afforded by these reproductions, especially the histology.
This is the second edition of this textbook, the first having been published in 2002. This volume is 200 pp. longer than its predecessor, but the layout is largely unchanged – the 13 sections in the book are divided into a number of chapters, each of which is contributed by a different author or pair of authors. The first section is a general introduction with some background information about endocrinology and chapters on hormone measurement and endocrine autoimmunity (good summaries, excellent for FRCPath Part 1 revision!), plus new chapters on endocrine disruptors (the effect of chemical substances such as plasticizers on endocrine function) and sports endocrinology (including the effect of banned substances – very topical with the Olympics just around the corner). This section is perhaps the most easily accessible one in the book.
The bulk of the text is comprised of sections on the various endocrine clinical areas, such as the thyroid, diabetes (a major section, as the title of the book suggests), female endocrinology, the pituitary, etc. The chapters in these sections cover all the information one could need about the various topics, including detailed descriptions of dynamic function tests. Each chapter is thoroughly referenced, with suggestions for further reading where appropriate. The information contained in the text is comprehensive – my only complaint is that some of the facts are fairly well hidden. The fault here is the indexing, which is notoriously tricky at the best of times. Some of the sections are very well indexed (I found the section on thyroid particularly easy to navigate) and some less so.
The layout of the book is fundamentally the same as that of the previous edition. The section headings are not identical in the two volumes, as there has been some reorganization of the information. Some of the chapters are very similar to the previous edition (especially when contributed by the same author(s)), but others have been entirely rewritten.
So, why buy this textbook rather than use smaller general books or individual specialist texts? The answer is partly for the convenience of finding all the information in one place, but also for the fact that there are sections on topics which you would not necessarily expect to find in an endocrinology textbook such as a section on inborn errors of metabolism (not exhaustive, but good nonetheless). The question which is harder to answer is whether to update an existing copy of the previous edition.
The intended readership is ‘specialists in endocrinology and those in training, general physicians and non-specialists in the field’. I would agree with this, and would also add clinical biochemists to those who would find the text useful. It is worth mentioning at this point that the purchase of the book includes a six-month subscription to the online version. This includes the full text and the figures, which are downloadable for easy viewing. Libraries may also purchase an institutional subscription.
While it contains a veritable mine of information, this is not, at over £200, going to be a book that I would recommend for personal purchase unless one intended to specialize in endocrinology. However, it is a very useful reference text which I would recommend for biochemistry departments and libraries. If a library already possessed the first edition, the decision to update would be a tricky one, as there are sections in the first edition which the reader may feel are superior to those in the second – but on balance I feel that the additional material contained in this edition would make the purchase worthwhile. The ideal situation, should budget and space allow, would be to use both texts in tandem.