Book Review

Pediatric Endocrinology, Volume 1: Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, Insulin Resistance, and Hypoglycemia

Pediatric Endocrinology, Volume 2: Growth, Adrenal, Sexual, Thyroid, Calcium, and Fluid Balance Disorders

N Engl J Med 2007; 357:1879November 1, 2007

Article

Pediatric Endocrinology, Volume 1: Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, Insulin Resistance, and Hypoglycemia
Fifth edition. Edited by Fima Lifshitz. 1297 pp., in two volumes, illustrated. New York, Informa Healthcare, 2007. $349.95. ISBN: 978-1-4200-4271-9 (Vol. 1 ISBN, 978-0-8493-4068-0; Vol. 2 ISBN, 978-1-4200-4270-2.)

Pediatric Endocrinology, Volume 2: Growth, Adrenal, Sexual, Thyroid, Calcium, and Fluid Balance Disorders
Pediatric Endocrinology, Volume 2: Growth, Adrenal, Sexual, Thyroid, Calcium, and Fluid Balance Disorders

Pediatric Endocrinology, now in its fifth edition, builds on the strengths and progressive improvements of previous editions. It is a compendium of practical, hands-on endocrinology with a focus on obesity and metabolic disorders in children.

The book is organized into two volumes. Volume 1 is focused on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disorders. Volume 2 deals with other aspects of endocrinology, including growth, adrenal, and thyroid disorders, as well as problems with mineral metabolism. This edition features new chapters on obesity and its metabolic consequences. Considering the rising incidence of these conditions in the everyday practice of pediatric endocrinology, these new chapters are welcome.

Pediatric Endocrinology is targeted to readers who are seeking the how-tos of practical endocrinology. This new edition stands at the top of the group of recent books in the field. It features several contributions from pediatric endocrinologists who are relatively new to the field; this helps keep the book fresh by avoiding a succession of recycled chapters. Several chapters were written by established leaders in the field. Their emphasis is on differential diagnoses, evaluation, and treatment.

The organization of the book into two volumes creates some awkwardness. Appendixes related to growth and nondiabetic disorders are placed in volume 1, rather than in volume 2, which would have been more appropriate. Two chapters in volume 1 — chapter 18, “Private Practice of Pediatric Endocrinology,” and chapter 19, “Clinical Research in Children” — appear to be lonesome add-ons. The wonderful chapter 31, “Radiation Terrorism,” is similarly tacked on to the end of volume 2. There is also redundancy within each volume. Volume 1 has two chapters on the management of type 1 diabetes and two chapters on the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. Volume 2 has two chapters on congenital adrenal hyperplasia, as well as a superfluous chapter on thyromegaly in the midst of four other detailed chapters on thyroid disorders. Several chapters on growth disorders overlap considerably. One advantage of such redundancy, however, is that more than one perspective is provided in several important areas.

Key chapters lack reviews of recent discoveries in molecular endocrinology. For example, the chapter on puberty does not include the latest findings concerning molecular defects in the regulation of puberty, and the chapter on sexual differentiation is not current.

The list price of $349.95 for these two volumes is a bitter pill that potential readers may find difficult to swallow. Pediatric Endocrinology is the costliest book in the field. Overstuffed in some areas and thin in others, this book is a very practical model for a luxury price, yet I wonder what the market for this book will be, especially when so much wonderful and contemporary literature is free and only a mouse click away.

Scott A. Rivkees, M.D.
Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520
scott.rivkees@yale.edu