British Journal of Radiology (2003) 76, 508
© 2003 British Institute of Radiology
doi:
Pocket radiologist. Abdominal. Top 100 diagnoses. By MP Federle, E Fishman, RB Jeffrey and VS Anne, pp. xii + 323, 2003 (Elsevier Science, Salt Lake City, UT), £37.00 ISBN 0-7216-0331-X
D F Martin
Pocket radiologist. Abdominal. Top 100 diagnoses (PDA version). By MP Federle, E Fishman, RB Jeffrey and VS Anne, 2003 (WB Saunders Company Ltd, Salt Lake City, UT), £48.00 ISBN 0-7216-0032-8
Good little book this. It's one of a series of pocket radiologist books, which come in the alternative form of a CD that can be downloaded to your palmtop. Its A5 format means that it can be kept in a big pocket although it is printed on high quality gloss paper and is therefore a bit heavy.
Topics covered include liver, biliary, pancreas, spleen, and gastrointestinal, genitourinary and retroperitoneal diseases. Interestingly in this politically correct world it contains some items on testicular disease but nothing on the ovary, although this is not perhaps surprising.
Each subgroup of diseases is divided into key facts, imaging findings, differential diagnosis, pathology and clinical issues with a small number of references. Diagnoses are listed alphabetically under each heading. The information under these headings is concise and very accurate. Most of the book is taken up with text but there are images to illustrate every diagnosis. The images are quite small but perfectly adequate for understanding and are very heavily weighted to cross-sectional imaging particularly CT. There is not a single plain film in the book. There are some useful coloured drawings to assist understanding. Some of my colleagues have commented to me that they have not found some other books in this series particularly helpful but this one can be thoroughly recommended. It has already helped me make a confident diagnosis in a particularly difficult hepatic lesion. My copy will stay close at hand on my desk and woe betide any SpR who borrows it and does not return it. I can see myself using this book repeatedly in the future. Well worth the £37.00 it cost.
