Abstract
Runge VM, Smoker RK, Valavanis A, Neuroradiology: The Essentials with MR and CT, Thieme: New York, 2015; 230 pp.: 9781604069167, £60.50 (pbk).
In addition to the three authors, seven contributors from radiology and one from orthopedics have been involved in creating this book. The authors characterize the book as an “excellent clinical reference”. The clinical aspects are, however, not very prominent. Only a few times are the clinical aspects of the presented cases mentioned, for example on page 87 (“Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus”).
The text is divided in three main chapters: Brain, Head and Neck, and Spine. The many figures with excellent image quality are followed by an almost exclusively radiological detailed descriptive text. Thus the reader is given a very focused and easy-to-follow text. The image to text ratio is unusually high which is much appreciated, most likely by the readers as well. The authors’ intention is obviously to give the readers a quick reference amid a busy clinical day. The book is especially valuable for residents. However, it must be admitted that the content gives more experienced radiologists and neuroradiologists valuable information and repetition of the radiological findings of all diseases usually dealt with by radiologists. Clinicians might be interested as well, but the almost complete lack of clinical information might lead to reduced interest from neurologists and neurosurgeons.
The authors are obviously very content with the book and state in the preface that “The text is written from a clinical radiology perspective, drawing on personal experience and covering common imaging findings often not well-described in more traditional, academic textbooks”. Whether other “more traditional, academic textbooks” lack good description of common imaging findings can definitely be disputed.
However, the book is of great value for any radiological department, and it might be wise “to bolt this book down” in order to prevent it from “walking” (William G Bradley in the Foreword).