The articles in Issue 4 of JOURNAL OF INHERITED METABOLIC DISEASE, Volume 16 (1993) contain the main lectures presented at the 30th Annual Symposium of the Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (SSIEM), Leuven, Belgium, 1992, which was dedicated to Inherited Metabolic Diseases and the Brain'. Topics discussed included: Inborn errors and brain fluids, neurotransmitter disorders, inborn errors and demyelination, and recent developments. Participants from many countries provided a state-of-the-art review which will be of interest to clinicians and research workers alike in many...

394 finding by Dr C. Jakobs, Amsterdam, was elevated plasma galactitol and/or sorbitol levels in some cataract patients with quite normal activities of the galactose-degrading enzymes and sorbitol dehydrogenase in RBC. Inherited disorders of glycoprotein metabolism were reviewed by Dr M. Cantz, Heidelberg, followed by detailed presentations on selected disorders. The meeting was closed by two exciting lectures, given by Dr J. R. Hobbs, London, and Dr F. Ledley, Houston, on the outcome of bone marrow transplantation and on future aspects of gene therapy in patients with inborn errors of...

With improved control of most environmental causes of disease, genetic illness has assumed a primary importance in the causation of handicap and mortality in all age groups. At present, effective therapy is available for relatively few genetic conditions and prenatal diagnosis is an important option for couples at high risk. The task of providing prenatal diagnosis for these couples requires a team approach between clinicians and scientists, and is complicated by the large number of diverse conditions and by the rapid developments in the field, both obstetric in relation to imaging and tissue...

The rapid growth of immunology has greatly increased our understanding of disease; this growth has also generated a subject which at times appears separated from some of the basic medical sciences. Recent studies in the areas of purine metabolism and of polymorphonuclear neutrophil phago- cyte function have, however, linked immunology and clinical medicine with biochemistry. The precise defects of the inborn errors of metabolism have now provided good evidence for the importance of purine metabolism specifically the enzymes adenosine deaminase and nucleoside phosphorylase in lymphocyte...

The use of cultured cells in the clinical diagnosis of hereditary metabolic dis- ease is a rapidly developing subject to which many different disciplines have brought their expertise and knowledge. A number of scientists who have in- dividually contributed to the growth of the subject gave invited papers at the Fourteenth Symposium of the Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism in the University of Edinburgh on 13-16th July, 1976. These papers form the basis of this monograph which brings together contributions from the basic sciences and from physicians concerned primarily with...

captured for the published proceedings. Nevertheless, the two Supplements to this Journal (also available together as a hard-backed book) do, over the years, embrace many of the major aspects of the study of inborn errors of metabolism and can, particularly with the Short Communications section, be used as a way into the literature on specific new topics. We hope that with judicious selection of material these supplements will continue to provide, as did the Society's earlier annual publications, a balanced record of the present state of the subject in all its facets, a record of interest to...

These two volumes record the scientific and clinical work presented at the VIIth International and 3rd European joint symposium on purine and pyrimidine metabolism in man held at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre, Bournemouth, UK, from 30th June to 5th July 1991. The series of international meetings at three yearly intervals have previously been held initially in 1973 in Israel, then Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, USA and Japan. The European Society for the Study of Purine and pyrimidine Metabolism in Man (ESSPPM) which has its own executive and some finance first met in...

These two volumes record the scientific and clinical work presented at the VIIth International and 3rd European joint symposium on purine and pyrimidine metabolism in man held at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre, Bournemouth, UK, from 30th June to 5th July 1991. The series of international meetings at three yearly intervals have previously been held initially in 1973 in Israel, then Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, USA and Japan. The European society for the Study of Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism in Man (ESSPPM) which has its own executive and some finance first met in...