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Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Methods and Biologic Applications (from the Methods in Molecular Medicine series).

The Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030

 
Edited by Pottumarthi V. Prasad. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 464 pp., 2005. $135 (ISBN: 1597450103) Edited by Prasad PV. Reviewed by Li KC

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This book is part of the Methods in Molecular Medicine series and is designed "to introduce MRI to biological scientists." The 18 chapters are divided into five sections: namely, Introduction, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Novel Contrast Agents and Mechanisms. The book has 28 contributors and, like most multiauthored books, has some redundancies, variations in style, and incompleteness. To a large extent the authors have achieved their stated goal.

The book starts with an excellent chapter on MR physics. The chapter can be supplemented by animations and other teaching tools for the less mathematically inclined biologists. Many excellent MR physics tutorials can be accessed through the Web, and a list of these Web sites in the bibliography section would be helpful. The second chapter focuses on MR microscopy, with 15 pages on technical considerations and only six pages on potential applications. More detailed discussions of the applications would have been helpful to biologists.

The anatomy section consists of three chapters. Chapter 3 focuses on MRI of embryonic and fetal developments in model systems and also contains an appropriate discussion of radiofrequency absorption and potential biologic effects. The chapter on morphologic phenotyping in mice is practical and reads like a protocol menu, making this chapter quite different from most of the others. The chapter on MR microscopy of the brain discusses only diffusion tension imaging, which is probably too limited in scope.

The four chapters of the physiology section discuss quantitative perfusion imaging using arterial spin labeling, the physiology of functional MRI, functional MRI of the kidney, and cardiac MR spectroscopy. Redundancy is notable in the two chapters on functional MRI, with blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) imaging receiving much attention in both chapters. Because many of the techniques discussed in this section can be used to study physiology or pathophysiology, the difference between this section and the next one is arbitrary. The pathophysiology section comprises three chapters emphasizing brain disease models, tumor physiology, and preclinical drug development. Many of the techniques discussed in this section, such as arterial spin labeling and BOLD, have been covered in previous chapters. About half of the tumor physiology chapter discusses dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, which is probably out of proportion to its importance in molecular medicine. The chapter on preclinical drug development is well done, with good specific examples and great advice.

The last section, which deals with novel contrast agents and mechanisms, consists of six chapters that cover hyperpolarized gas, tissue pH measurements, manganese-enhanced MRI, targeted MRI contrast agents, MRI gene reporters, and magnetic cell labeling. A detailed discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of MRI compared with other imaging techniques at the beginning of the section will be helpful to biologists. The omission of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) contrast agents from this section may be an major oversight.

In summary, despite some minor shortcomings, Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Methods and Biologic Applications is a quite readable book that can be a good introduction of MRI to biologists. The inclusion on the accompanying CD of all the figures is a nice touch but is not particularly useful because the quality of the figures in the book is excellent, and reading from both the CD and the printed book is cumbersome. However, putting the entire book into a DVD may be a good alternative to the printed format.

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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 Li, K. C. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Li, K. C. Social Bookmarking                      What's this? Hotlight (NEW!) What's Hotlight?