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Book Review
Primer on MR Imaging of the Abdomen and Pelvis, by Diego R. Martin, Michèle A. Brown, and Richard C. Semelka, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2005; ISBN 0-471-37340-0; list price $59.95 (paperback)
Webster's dictionary defines a primer as "a
book covering the basic elements of a subject." This book fulfills
that definition not with respect to the fundamentals of MR imaging
but how MR imaging can be applied for diagnostic evaluation and
management of diseases of the abdo-men and the pelvis. The authors'
primary motivation for the book stems from the observation of "a gap
between the utility and the utilization of MRI." As such, its
primary audience is the clinician, that is, radiology resident,
fellow, or practicing radiologist. This book may serve as a recipe
for the clinician to learn how differences of T2, T1, and proton
density in tissue, blood, and fluids can be exploited, along with
administration of contrast and suppression techniques in a large
variety of sequences for a myriad of disorders and diseases to
obtain the best possible disease conspicuity for differential
diagnosis. In addition, the sequences are also weighed against
examination time, a primary and important factor governing many
procedures in the clinic.
While the
maze of possibilities may seem overwhelming for some who are
accustomed to obtaining a simple cross-sectional set of images in
other modalities such as CT, it is precisely these possibilities
that promise a wealth of detail and features with greater contrast
resolution to the radiologist that are unobtainable in other ways.
Thus, a resource such as this may prove quite valuable to the
practicing radiologist.
After an
introductory chapter, the book is sectioned into chapters according
to the organ system, that is, liver, gallbladder and bile ducts,
pancreas, spleen, kidneys, adrenal glands, gastrointestinal tract,
retro peritoneum, peritoneum, bladder, male pelvis, and female
pelvis. The format of each chapter is fairly similar: Each chapter
starts out with text and images of the normal organ as seen under
different MR sequences. This is followed by sections on particular
diseases, along with a large set of images for each disease under
different MR sequences, explaining in detail the advantages and
disadvantages of a particular sequence. Covering a span of close to
500 pages, using tables, text, images, and special notes guiding the
radiologist on the effects of things such as stent placement on the
diagnostic sensitivity of the study, the authors outline change in
intrinsic properties such as T1 and T2, along with early and late
effects of gadolinium administration for different lesions such as
cysts, hemangioma, metastases, hamartoma, etc., at different stages;
this provides a wealth of information for pattern recognition to aid
in diagnosis and management of
diseases.
For the physicist, aside
from developing an appreciation of why certain sequences are used
for certain suspects in the diagnosis and management of diseases, I
would have reservations in advocating that this book be a necessary
part of the medical physicist's library. The targeted audience is
the clinician, and it reaches its audience quite well by providing
an armament of tools available for practice in the clinic.
Amir Huda, PhD
Assistant
Professor
Department of Physics
California State
University
2345 E. San Ramon Avenue, M/S MH37
Fresno,
California 93740-8031
© 2005 Am. Coll. Med. Phys.