Synopses & Reviews
This volume is the first in a new series entitled "Endocrinology and Metabolism: Progress in Research and Clinical Practice". It explores a wide range of clinical conditions in terms of the challenge they pose to current concepts in endocrinology. These conditions include pseudohypoparathyroidism, characterized by target organ resistance to parathyroid hormone; vitamin D resistance syndromes associated with calcitriol receptor abnormalities; and androgen sensivity syndromes in which normal testicular androgen synthesis and secretion coexist with phenotypic feminization. The endocrine paradox phenomenon is further elucidated through comprehensive discussions of the pathophysiology and treatment of major disorders in mineral homeostasis due to aldosterone deficiency and pseudodeficiency (with emphasis on hormonal derangements in Bartter's syndrome); euthyroid hyperoxinemia; and clinical and physiologic implications of insulin gene mutations and subsequent defects in insulin biosynthesis.
Synopsis
Endocrinology and Metabolism: Progress in Research and Clinical Prac- tice is a new series that has been designed to present timely, critical reviews of constantly evolving fields; to provide practical and up-to-date guidance in the solution of pertinent clinical problems; to offer an alterna- tive to the laborious search of the literature (and the often frustrating reading of highly technical articles); and to translate the language of the laboratory into that of the practice of medicine. We think that this volume and those to come will prove useful to physi- cians (and to physicians in training), as well as to investigators in a wide variety of specialties; in short, to anyone who seeks answers to questions in endocrinology and metabolism. The first chapter of this volume could well serve as a general introduc- tion to the entire series. It points out how our growing understanding of the molecular basis of biologic communication has led to the discovery of a growing number of clinical syndromes, as well as to the realization that phenotypically similar diseases may have radically different pathogenetic mechanisms and thus may require radically different therapeutic strata- gems.
Table of Contents
Contents: Introduction: The Journey of the Endocrine Signal: A Paradigm of Murphy's Law.- Insulin Gene Mutations and Abnormal Products of the Human Insulin Gene.- Euthyroid Hyperthyroxinemia.- Pseudohypoparathyroidism: Target Organ Resistance to Parathyroid Hormone and Other Metabolic Defects.- Syndromes of Vitamin D Resistance.- Androgen Insensitivity Syndromes: Paradox of Phenotypic Feminization With Male Genotype and Normal Testicular Androgen Secretion.- States of Aldosterone Deficiency or Pseudodeficiency.- Bartter's Sydrome.- Index.