Diagnostic Imaging: Brain

Scope: This book is divided into two parts. The first part organizes diagnoses according to general pathology and includes 10 sections covering congenital malformations, trauma, subarachnoid hemorrhage and aneurysms, stroke, vascular malformations, neoplasms and tumor-like lesions, primary and non-neoplastic cysts, infectious and demyelinating diseases, and finally, inherited and acquired toxic, metabolic, and degenerative diseases. The second part is organized by anatomic locations, including ventricles and cisterns, sella and pituitary, cerebellopontine angle, and skull, scalp, and meninges. The book contains 4,400 illustration in 992 pages. In the preface, chief author Anne Osborn states the rationale for the organization of the book: ‘‘We’ve become victims of our own success: we are getting better and better at imaging more and more stuff. This translates into an ever-increasing case load. Time is a luxury most of us don’t have. We need our information in an easily accessible format. . . . We don’t have time for extra words that don’t carry essential information so we don’t write them!’’ The authors’ ‘‘matter-of-fact’’ approach is followed rigorously in that each disorder is discussed over 4 pages. The discussion is divided into terminology, imaging findings, differential diagnosis, pathology, clinical issues, diagnostic checklist, selected references, and an imaging gallery, which in most cases includes 6 images (4 for the rare disorders). ‘‘Key Facts’’ and differential diagnosis are highlighted in boxes that contain short summaries of the entities and 4 images. The text is composed of bulleted statements that contribute to the uniformity of the book with hardly any stylistic difference between the different authors. Strengths: The books provides a huge amount of information on hundreds of diagnostic entities from the most common (meningioma and multiple sclerosis) to the rarest (cerebellar hemorrhage). The information is not limited to neuroradiology; there is up-to-date information on pathology, physiology, epidemiology, and clinical features with the latest references in each area. The images themselves are impressive and are derived from advanced techniques such as MR spectroscopy, diffusion weighting, MR perfusion, noninvasive angiography, and digital subtraction catheter-based angiography. The imaging findings section includes recommendations for the best imaging tool and protocols for best yield. The magnificent color illustrations done by James A. Cooper convey the essentials of diagnosis, and provide correlation between the gross pathology and the CT and MR images.