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Imaging of the Nervous System: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications, vols. 1 and 2

New York University School of Medicine
New York, NY 10012

edited by Richard E. Latchaw, John Kucharczyk, and Michael E. Moseley. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Mosby, 1,776 pp., 2005. $295 (two-volume set and CD-ROM)

Imaging of the Nervous System: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications is a comprehensive, multiauthored textbook that aims and, within the constraints of publishing time-tables, succeeds in presenting the current state of the art in neuroimaging. The two volumes are divided into seven parts: Principles of Neurological Imaging, Cerebrovascular Disease, Cerebral Nonvascular Disease, Emerging Concepts in Pediatric Imaging, Image Guidance for the Therapy of Parenchymal Disorders, the Peripheral Nervous System, and the Spine and Spinal Cord.

Among the 151 contributors are many well-known investigators and educators, a sort of Who's Who in neuroradiology. Despite the great number of authors and therefore writing styles, the editors have done an admirable job ensuring a consistent feel to each chapter. Each begins with a discussion of the imaging, pathologic, or classification principles appropriate to the subject matter and then treats individual disease entities or imaging topics in further depth. Therapeutic and management issues are included as required by the topic. Each chapter contains several summary boxes that are used to address key concepts, differential diagnoses, imaging questions, and protocols. These summaries are often helpful in textbooks destined for reference use, as this two-volume set certainly is.

The numerous images and illustrations supporting the text are excellent. Distracting arrows and pointers are used judiciously, and most images are free of them. Almost all of the CT and MR images appear to have been acquired using up-to-date scanners, and the diagrams are clear. Selected color plates are grouped at the beginning of each volume, which is an unfortunate, but presumably economically necessary, compromise.

Chapters on physics are well written and should serve as reference and review for physicians already acquainted with the basics of MRI and CT. Every technique commonly used in clinical practice and many that are limited to academic centers are covered in detail, the latter including magnetoencephalography, MR evaluation of CSF flow, high-resolution MRI of carotid atherosclerosis, and xenon-enhanced CT. Particularly interesting is an entire section devoted to the use of neuroimaging techniques in guiding percutaneous and operative procedures.

Although Imaging of the Nervous System succeeds as a reference text, the CD-ROM that accompanies this textbook is a disappointment. It is poorly designed, cumbersome to navigate, and grossly incomplete with respect to the text. For example, case studies are available for only 24 of the 86 chapters. In addition, frequent errors occurred when I tried to search for specific topics or attempted to use the Detailed Section Browse feature. Had the publisher chosen to provide each chapter as a PDF, either on CD-ROM or via the Internet, this textbook could have been an ideal at-the-view-box reference system.

In short, Imaging of the Nervous System: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications should serve as an up-to-date encyclopedic reference for neuroradiologists and general radiologists whose practices include neuroimaging. This book is not particularly useful for residents or fellows seeking a knowledge framework because many of the subjects are too esoteric to merit a cover-to-cover read. However, as a resource for radiologists who encounter a broad variety of neurologic imaging problems, this textbook excels. The publisher's challenge at this point is to design a digital delivery system, either by CD-ROM or via the World Wide Web, that approaches the quality of the material presented in volumes 1 and 2.

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Baxter, A. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Baxter, A. Social Bookmarking                      What's this?