Author Description

The body of knowledge in most medical specialties is rapidly expanding, making it virtually impossible to follow all advances in clinical and basic sciences that are relevant to a given field. This is particularly true in pediatric endocrinology, at the cross-road of pediatrics, endocrinology, development and genetics. The 2005 Yearbook of Pediatric Endocrinology brings you a selection of articles that report the year's breakthrough developments in basic sciences and evidence-based new knowledge in clinical research and clinical practice that are relevant to the field. Covering the medical literature published from July 2004 through June 2005, the editors and associate editors selected from several thousand papers those that brought the most meaningful new information, summarized them and provided comments to put them into perspective. The papers are classified into those that identify new genes involved in diseases, new hormones, concepts revised or re-centered, important observations for clinical practice, large-scale clinical trials, new mechanisms, new paradigms, important review articles, new fears and new hopes. This is the second volume of the Yearbook of Pediatric Endocrinology, and it is already regarded as a tradition by experts in the field. The Yearbook of Pediatric Endocrinology is endorsed by the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE). We hope that the Yearbook of Pediatric Endocrinology 2005 will help busy clinicians and scientists, pediatric endocrinologists, and also pediatricians and endocrinologists keep informed on new advances in our field.