Book excerpt: Written by more than 60 international experts in the field, Muscle Disease embodies the explosion of new concepts and information on the pathology and genetics of muscle disease that has occurred in recent years. In order to accommodate the new complex principles involved, the book is organized around the motor unit and the inherited disorders, in particular, are centered on the ultrastructure and organelles within the muscle fiber. In this way, the wide spectrum of muscle diseases, ranging from neurogenic and inflammatory disorders to those involving defects in a single gene, can be expressed in a logical sequence. For example, disorders that principally involve specific organelles or particular metabolic processes are grouped together, with sections on disorders of the sarcolemma, mitochondria, myofibrils, glycogen and lipid metabolism, etc. Firm reference to clinical aspects and classification of muscle diseases has been maintained throughout the book with an initial clinical overview and with specific clinical sections in each chapter. For ease of navigation through the complex variety of muscle diseases, each chapter has been organized in a standard pattern that allows the reader to easily locate information on individual disease entities in different chapters. This new edition of Muscle Disease: Pathology and Genetics will be a very valuable resource for clinicians, pathologists, geneticists and basic neuroscientists involved in diagnosis, research, treatment and management of patients with muscle disease.