Abstract
This 646-page text book is part of a series by the same author that includes separate volumes on the head and neck, and the spine.
The book is organized into five chapters, starting with a chapter on “Brain (Intra-Axial Lesions).” The chapter is divided into 11 sections, beginning with congenital lesions and then covering single and multiple lesions in the normal locations including supra and infra tentorial, white matter, basal ganglia, and sella and pineal regions. Further sections on ischemia and neurodegenerative disorders are also included. This first chapter is the largest and occupies the first 400 pages.
Chapter 2 covers ventricular and periventricular lesions, chapter 3 covers extra-axial lesions, chapter 4 covers the meninges, and chapter 5 is devoted to vascular normal variants and lesions.
Each chapter starts with an introduction that provides some anatomical and embryological background, complemented by good quality color diagrams. The format of the book is based on the pathological appearances and location (e.g. single supratentorial or multiple infratentorial) and the author makes use of tables that list various differential diagnoses for those anatomical locations with short descriptions of the imaging findings and comments about the etiology, epidemiology, and relevant clinical, genetic, and laboratory findings related to the various conditions.
The extensive collection of images shows the classical appearances of the various pathologies with mainly MRI and CT with samples of spectroscopy and vascular imaging as appropriate. The diagrams are well presented in color and helpfully annotated. The list of pathologies is comprehensive and well structured. By nature of the format, there are multiple examples of repetition.
This book is designed to be an easy to use reference with a good list of differentials given the imaging characteristics of the pathology rather than a book covering the differential diagnosis for various pathologies. For this reason, it is likely to be of more use in a general radiology department with less neuroradiology experience. It covers expected imaging characteristics of the majority of pathologies, but due to its format is not an extensive review of the less common imaging characteristics of those pathological entities.
The chapter on vascular imaging, in particular, covers the anatomy well with high quality diagrams and the examples of the normal variants and common pathologies are covered with CT and MR and angiographic images.
This textbook is best suited as a quick reference in a general radiology department. It does not have the depth required for a neuroradiologist in training (although it has a great collection of teaching cases) or an established neuroradiologist who already has a differential in mind and is more interested in the uncommon appearances of these diseases or refining the differential by excluding rare possibilities.