Basics in Metabolic Biochemistry

     Among the 196 pages of the volume Basics in Metabolic Biochemistry, the author managed to include useful information on the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids and nucleotides. It is a performance, taking into account the existence of volumes of hundreds of pages focusing only on the metabolism of certain components (monographs on the amino acids, disproteinemia, porphyria, and many volumes on diabetology). It is the author’s merit of being able to select the essential and most useful knowledge for the student in medicine, to whom this book is primarily dedicated.

     Every chapter has pages on various medical important metabolic disturbances, and in the chapter on lipid metabolism, following the metabolism of cholesterol, steroid hormones and bile acids are discussed. In this way the author has succeeded in connecting the purely biochemical language (chemical structures and sometimes very complex reactions) to the medical language, making the book more attractive and at the same time, giving it a greater medical value.

     Data presentation is succinct, clear and well structured. Once understood, this material may be used to explain and elucidate the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the normal functioning of the human body and lifelong pathological aspects.

      In the end, I would like to mention the inclusion of control questions, judiciously worded with the purpose of better assessing the knowledge.

Prof. Univ. Dr. Doc. Mircea Cucuianu