Preface

This book has been designed with the intention of preparing students, particularly those in medical school, for both regular course exams in biochemistry and medical biochemistry as well as medical board exams, namely the USMLE Step 1 exam taken by all US medical students at the completion of their second year of education. To accomplish this goal, there are 1100 multiple choice questions throughout all of the chapters with 50% being formatted in the current USMLE Step 1 format.

In addition to the general content and questions, a major focus of this book is on the integration of medical biochemistry with physiology, pathophysiology, pathology, and anatomy. This focus has been undertaken with this book to ensure that it serves that critical audience of current and future medical student, exposed to the shifting medical school curriculum, which is to use a more integrated content approach.

This review book is divided into four broad sections. The first section covers the basics of the major building blocks of all cells and tissues. The second section, and by far the major bulk of any medical biochemistry text, covers metabolic biochemistry with a strong emphasis on clinical correlations and clinical disorders related to these all-important pathways. The third section covers the cellular and molecular biology topics associated with medical biochemistry, physiology, and pathology. The fourth section includes 10 chapters dealing with high-yield integrative topics that are beneficial to not only medical students but to all students of the discipline.

Each chapter begins with an outline listing the major topics covered in the content. This is followed by a list of high-yield terms related to the included content. Each chapter includes numerous explanatory figures and tables aimed at allowing for increased understanding of and focus on the critical content. Most chapters include detailed Clinical Boxes that describe and discuss the high-yield information concerning diseases and disorders related to defects in the pathways being discussed. Although each chapter does not warrant one or more Clinical Boxes, there are over 90 such high-yield topics throughout the book. Each chapter content section is followed by a series of multiple choice questions, which also include explanatory answers for each and every question. Finally, at the end of each chapter is a Checklist designed to refocus the reader to the most important and high-yield concepts covered by each chapter. If a student finds concepts and/or content confusing or unclear when completing any chapter, it is highly recommended that for further detailed information they go to http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org. This is the most complete resource for a more comprehensive study of the material reviewed in this book.

I would like to acknowledge the invaluable contributions provided by the McGraw-Hill editorial team of Michael Weitz, Karen Edmonson, Thomas DiPierro, Anthony Landi, and Laura Libretti. I give great thanks to the graphic design students, Matt Wilson, Janine Phelps, and Austin Woodall (at IUSM-Terre Haute host campus, Indiana State University) who were instrumental in preparing much of the artwork for this text. I would also like to acknowledge my students from the Indiana University School of Medicine-Terre Haute, class of 2017, for their willingness to serve as test subjects for many of the clinical vignette questions in this book. Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues for their support and encouragement throughout the process of completing this book.