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Teaching Atlas of Nuclear Medicine. By K J Donohoe and A D Van Den Abbeele, pp. xxvii+490, 2000 (Thieme Medical Publishers, New York), DM 248 ISBN 3-13-108611-4

This is an easy to read and well presented atlas that will prove useful for nuclear medicine trainees in particular. The pearls and pitfalls sections presented with each case are extremely useful and cover important points. Information, however, is often repeated in subsequent cases, which is tedious when the book is read from cover-to-cover but useful when reviewing individual cases.

Unfortunately, some of the images leave much to be desired and are not of comparable quality to the images produced with a modern gamma camera system. This problem is evident throughout the book, involving most chapters. However, despite this the images displayed do illustrate the points made in the majority of cases. Labelling of images throughout the book is inadequate. Whereas an experienced nuclear medicine practitioner will know what the images depict, a less experienced practitioner or trainee may not be as well informed.

For a British contingent, doses in MBq rather than mCi would be useful as not everyone can mentally multiply figures by 37. In addition, for the British reader many of the doses used differ from those recommended by ARSAC.

The case for use of three phase bone scans for particular indications is perhaps not made as strongly as is common practice. Regarding the cardiac section, the majority of centres, I believe, now use tomography rather than static imaging. The use of image labels with the static images displayed would have been very useful. The pearls and pitfalls of case 36 state "The technologist leaves the room". This should never happen in an adequately staffed department. Bulls eye images are displayed from case 33 to case 49. These are of poor quality and are not explained. Illustration of such images is of little value without an explanation as to their interpretation and usefulness. Hibernating myocardium is mentioned only briefly and no specific protocols are delineated for PET studies. Given current opinion this would have been useful.

The section on less commonly used agents may prove useful for smaller centres that either have no access to these studies or perform such studies rarely. The chapter on renal scintigraphy, whilst containing some useful pearls and pitfalls, does not display data or analysis in a similar way to that commonly utilized in the UK.

Despite these criticisms I feel that this is overall a useful atlas, particularly for trainees and those who dip into nuclear medicine as a sub-speciality rather than as their main interest. Better quality images would greatly improve the atlas's appeal to the British market.

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