edited by Salvatore DiMauro, MD, Michio Hirano, MD, Eric A. Schon, PhD, 368 pp, $229.95, ISBN 1-84214-288-7, Informa Health Care, Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom, 2006.
The mitochondrial basis of disease was introduced in 1962 with the description by Rolf Luft, MD, of a young Swedish woman who had nonthyroidal hypermetabolism due to loose coupling of muscle mitochondria. Since then, the development of the fields of mitochondrial genetics and related mitochondrial-based diseases has been stunning, indeed, over the past several decades and the discipline has earned the designation of mitochondrial medicine. DiMauro, Hirano, and Schon have compiled a brilliant book encapsulating our current knowledge of mitochondrial function and mitochondrial-based diseases in 14 well-focused chapters. Mitochondrial functions are elegantly reviewed beginning with “Introduction: the Birth of Mitochondrial Medicine” by Prof Rolf Luft, reviewing his experience with his original patient. As he states: