Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry, Third Edition. Carl A. Burtis and Edward R. Ashwood, eds. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders, 1998, 1917 pp., $195.00. ISBN 0-7216-5610-2.

Abstract

One can identify a good textbook in medicine by its being authoritative, useful, comprehensive, facile, inclusive, and well-organized. One needs to ask whether one would use the book every day, as the first place to refer and the last. The third edition of the Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry fits this bill.The editors of the Tietz Textbook have made several changes from the previous edition. They have added chapters covering Laboratory Management, Cytokines, Cardiac Function, and Organ Transplantation; split Amino Acids and Proteins into two chapters; and combined the chapters on Osmometry, Electrolytes, Blood Gases and pH, and Acid-Base Balance and Acid-Base Disorders into one chapter. In addition, the chapter on Endocrinology has been split into six chapters, now entitled General Endocrine Function, Pituitary Function, Thyroid Function, Function of the Adrenal Cortex-Mix, Catecholamines …