As in previous volumes, the reviews presented here cover a wide
variety of topics, all of current importance in the rapidly developing
subject of clinical chemistry. It cannot be too often emphasized that,
important though that part of the subject is, clinical chemistry is much
more than a branch of analytical chemistry, supplying methods of
detection and determination as diagnostic and prognostic tools. It is a
means (and a most important one) of studying the underlying chemical
abnormalities of disease and is thus a meeting place for clinicians,
biochemists, physiologists, and pathologists. The clinical chemist must
not only be a first-rate analyst but must be at least conversant with these
wider disciplines.
This volume contains three reviews of essentially methodological
subjects-one which includes methodology but also ranges more widely
over the fields of general biochemistry and medicine, one which deals in
detail with the chemical and enzymic abnormalities of a group of
“molecular diseases,” and one on abnormal hemoglobins which is of
interest to an enormous range of people from organic chemists to
clinicians and geneticists.
It is our earnest hope that this volume will deserve the same splendid
reception accorded to its predecessors.