Book excerpt: Written by a team of medical experts, this market-leading, two colour, illustrated dictionary contains 12,400 authoritative entries covering all aspects of medical science. The text has been fully revised and updated for this new edition to reflect the very latest in medical knowledge andpractice. Entries are accessible and jargon-free and are complemented by over 145 illustrations and diagrams.This brand new edition includes over 450 new entries and features up-to-date coverage of public health medicine and general practice, drugs and pharmacology, endocrinology (particularly diabetology), and cardiology, amongst other specialist areas. Recommended web links are provided for many entries,accessible and kept up to date via the Medical Dictionary Companion website, and appendices have been expanded to include units of alcohol and the calculation of alcohol by volume, and a table of inherited medical conditions.Selling over a million copies in previous editions, this is an essential A-Z for students and those working in the medical and allied professions, including nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, social workers, hospital administrators, and medical secretaries. It is also an invaluable homereference guide for the general reader.