Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology and Diabetes
3rd Edition
Download
Editors : John A.H. Wass
Wiebke Arlt Robert K. Semple Pages: 2353 Language: English Format: PDF Size: 110MB
Preface
It is now over a hundred and seventy years since Arnold Bertholddemonstrated that endocrine glands convey their effects via thebloodstream and a hundred and ten years since the word ‘hormone’was coined by Ernest Starling. Amazingly, it is just under a hundred years since one of the nascent specialty’s most spectacularNobel Prize-winning triumphs, the purification and use of insulinto transform Type I diabetes from a rapidly fatal wasting diseaseof childhood into a manageable chronic condition. Similarly, seventy years ago the Nobel Prize recognised the life-saving impactof glucocorticoids both for patients with adrenal insufficiency andas immunosuppressive therapy for chronic inflammatory disease.Since then endocrinology has continued to ride the crest of a waveof technological advances, most prominent recently in areas suchas molecular genetics, imaging, immunotherapy and rational drugdesign.The first edition of the Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology &Diabetes was published in 2002. The landscape of endocrine disease has evolved enormously since then, driven largely by burgeoning obesity and by population ageing. The spectrum ofendocrinology has been further broadened by the increasing useof immunomodulatory therapies with endocrine complications,evolving patterns of recreational drug use impacting endocrinesystems, and widespread exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. The therapeutic armamentarium of the endocrinologist hasalso expanded at pace, not only through development of novel smallmolecule and biological therapies, but also through step changes ine-technology and their application to chronic disease managementand “precision” medicine.We now comprehensively update the second edition of theTextbook published in 2012. The expanded first part of the book isdevoted to overview chapters focusing on principles underpinningthe science and practice of endocrinology. Elsewhere, other sectionshave also been enlarged to capture exciting developments insubspeciality practice, with separate sections now devoted to endocrine disease in pregnancy and transgender endocrinology.The diabetes section has been extensively reorganised to reflectrapid advances in understanding the molecular pathogenesis ofdiabetes, step changes in the sophistication of technologies usedfor metabolic monitoring and insulin delivery, and innovations inimmunotherapy, behaviour-focused and cell-based therapies. Newchapters are devoted to current urgent responses to diabetes as apublic health and economic challenge.Fascination in the science underlying endocrinology continuesto endure, and clinical endocrinologists have an ever more sophisticated ability to transform the length and quality of life of thosewith hormone-related diseases. This book aims both to illuminatethe emerging scientific concepts that underlie endocrinology, andto provide an accessible and authoritative account of cutting edgeendocrine practice.We are very grateful indeed to our national and international colleagues who have kindly, expertly and cerebrally contributed to allsections. We are proud of this magnum opus and thank them sincerely for their significant efforts.We also thank Claire Brankin, James Oates and Helen Liepmanfrom Oxford University Press who have expertly and efficientlyguided us through this whole process.This book should be available to every endocrinologist, traineeand researcher and we hope that it provides as much enjoyment andintellectual satisfaction in the reading as it did in putting it together.
