Abstract
Edited by William Marshall, Márta Lapsley, Andrew Day and Ruth Ayling
London: Churchill Livingstone, 2014
932 pp, Price £79.99
ISBN: 978-0-7020-5140-1
Clinical biochemistry by Marshall et al. is a library classic and this new edition has been updated for the modern audience. In this case, the ‘modern audience’ includes the more multidisciplinary health care scientist and the metabolic medicine trainee. Therefore, the book aims to cover areas such as haematology and immunology, to provide a suitable introduction for clinical biochemists, and more information on the management of metabolic disorders for medical trainees. Did the editors succeed?
As introductions to these specialties, the haematology and immunology sections were complete, concise and interesting with excellent figures covering both analytical and clinical aspects. Therefore, the chapters are an accessible introduction to these disciplines. With regard to medical management, there is some very useful information particularly in the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of biochemistry and details of investigation protocols. You could not rely on this textbook alone for all management aspects, e.g. drug dosing and interactions, but that is outside its scope and again it acts as a comprehensive and useful introduction for the clinical practitioner.
The flow from one chapter to another is logical and easy to follow so that if you wanted to read the book from cover to cover you would enjoy the development of the subject matter. Indeed, the chapters refer to one another, preventing repetition and sign-posting you to pertinent sections. Basic laboratory science and practice is covered in the first couple of chapters and I would recommend this as a good read for all trainees starting in the discipline as it allows you to understand day-to-day lab conversation, preventing much confusion in your first posting.
References are provided at the end of each chapter, most with helpful summaries explaining what information they contain and saving the reader valuable time searching for additional resources. The references provided appeared to me to be the most important ones you would be expected to have read if working in that field. The tables and figures are particularly useful, both summarizing important information and helping quick identification of important causes and differential diagnoses.
Indexing, when tested, appears to be flawless. I was asked a reasonably tricky question about biological variability and parathyroid hormone by a passing endocrinologist and by consulting the book (I was clutching it at the time) found the answer in less than one minute; fairly impressive given the size of the textbook, which is however appropriate. At no point did I think too much information was being given and, though this may be regarded as overwhelming, having now sat the FRCPath examinations I think it covers the subject in the required depth and breadth. It would be unrealistic to expect any trainee to memorize the entire book but you would certainly be able to construct a sound essay on any clinical or physiological topic by using Marshall as your primary source.
As an additional bonus, there is an electronic version of the textbook that can be accessed on the internet via a personal login. This login also permits one copy of the book to be downloaded on to a device of your choice for off-line browsing. This presented me with problems; firstly, I scratched through the number in places owing to a very adherent silver coating. However, I registered with the site and asked for help and they uploaded the book on to my library by the next day. The second problem was encountered when trying to check that this had occurred by logging in at work; the site kept going into another person’s account giving me access to their books and email address. According to the website people, this is supposedly a problem when using a public computer. Logging on at home with a device was fine; I downloaded the app and accessed my library, complete with my copy of the book. There are no extra features like videos but the web addresses in the references are now links and the figures can be viewed separately and sent by email if you want to share them.
Marshall’s ‘Clinical Biochemistry: Metabolic and Clinical Aspects’ does everything the title states, extensively covering the biochemical and medical aspects of metabolism and its disorders. Additional resources would be required for FRCPath examinations to cover areas such as analytical biochemistry, inborn errors and mathematical/statistical techniques, but this is outside the textbook’s remit; therefore, in my opinion, Marshall remains the authoritative cornerstone for clinical biochemistry.