Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, Fourth Edition. Carl A. Burtis, Edward R. Ashwood, and David E. Bruns, editors. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders, 2006, 2448 pp., $229.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-7216-0189-8.

In most clinical laboratories, the Tietz Textbook is an obligatory reference book, kept in a central place, always available to everyone—laboratory scientists, trainees, and students alike. This edition is a welcome, carefully prepared update that appears some 6 years after the previous edition, and it considers all of the recent striking developments in clinical chemistry as a leading discipline of laboratory medicine. Although the basic principles and the general outline of the book have been maintained, there are numerous changes from the previous edition, as reflected by the new title, which now includes the wording “Molecular Diagnostics”. The size of the book has increased by ∼500 pages, increasing from 1917 to 2448 pages. There are 102 contributors (76 from the United States), with 73 new authors and a new editor, Dr. Bruns, who joins in forming a renowned triumvirate of editors. The book comprises 56 chapters with more than 10 500 references in total. Because the …