• 1. Cells and organelles; 2. Carbohydrates; 3. Carbohydrate metabolism and related disorders; 4. Cellular energetics and energy production; 5. Lipids; 6. Lipid metabolism and related disorders; 7. Proteins (+ proteins as functional units); 8. Metabolism of nitrogen containing compounds; 9. Information storage and transmission; 10. Information expression and proteins as functional units; 11. Communication between cells and tissues in the body; 12. Sodium, water and potassium; 13. Hydrogen ion homeostasis; 14. The cardiovascular system; 15. Haemoglobin, porphyrias and iron; 16. The liver; 17. Gastrointestinal system; 18. The kidney; 19. Calcium, phosphate, magnesium and bone; 20. The hypothalamic and pituitary glands; 21. The thyroid gland; 22. The adrenal glands; 23. The gonads; 24. Metabolic aspect of malignancy; 25. Nutrition and nutritional disorders.

Ira Thabrew is Professor and Head in the Department of Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, and Ruth Ayling is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at King's College Hospital in London. Both have long and extensive experience in research as well as in the teaching of medical undergraduates and postgraduates. They have come together to write a readable volume that focuses on the essential core of biochemistry that medical students must have to understand most aspects of clinical medicine, particularly pathophysiology, clinical chemistry and pharmacology. The authors have set themselves a difficult task, for it is all too easy to fall into the trap of trying to achieve simplification for its own sake bereft of accuracy and depth. And "clinical relevance" is such a subjective thing that no two readers are likely to agree on what should come in and what should be left out in a book such as this one. To complicate matters even more, medical studies (and doctors) are such a heterogenous group when it comes to their interest and willingness to grapple with biochemistry, even of the simplified sort. The chapters of the books are arranged in two sections. The first comprises 11 chapters dealing with cell biology, including cellular energetics, membrane transport, information storage and transfer, transmission, expression, and the more familiar areas such as carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism. These are followed by two chapters devoted to sodium and water metabolism and hydrogen ion homeostasis (what a relief to read this accurate title, after hearing and reading so often the inane expression "acid-base balance", so beloved of medical doctors!). These two chapters seem to achieve a seamless transition into the next 12 that introduce the reader to basic knowledge in clinical biochemistry. What do I like about this book? I like the untrammelled simplicity, clarity and directness of its writing most of all. Alth.