British Journal of Radiology (2003) 76, 508-509
© 2003 British Institute of Radiology
doi:
Radiology of the chest and related conditions. By RW Wright, pp. 912 + CD-ROM, 2002 (Taylor and Francis, London, UK), £175.00 ISBN 0 415-28141-5
A M K Thomas
Primer of diagnostic imaging (3rd edn). By R Weissleder, J Wittenberg and MG Harisinghani, pp. xxii + 1049, 2003 (Mosby, Inc, Philadelphia, PA), £67.99 ISBN 0-323-02328-2
Books in note form are a convenient way to present information in an accessible form. A clinical condition can be summarized and the information taken in at a glance. These two books, one on the chest and one on radiology generally, are examples of the genre, but with rather different approaches to the presentation of information.
The Primer of diagnostic imaging has been produced by the Department of Radiology of the Massachusetts General Hospital and reviews the information needed to be acquired during a radiology residency. The balance of the book is excellent with an emphasis on the fundamentals of radiology. The "low tech" is given as much place as the "high tech". The material is presented as a series of lists with appropriate high quality line diagrams as required. There is also an indication of the frequency of the various clinical conditions which is missing in some books of lists. The book is in a large format and is not designed for the pocket or even the briefcase. I suppose one could buy a copy of the book and take it apart into individual pages. I remember, when I was a junior, a more senior colleague who did this with David Sutton's textbook of radiology in order to make reading it on the train easier. This book is to be recommended for FRCR candidates and also as a reference for the practising radiologist. The value of the book is shown by it now being in its third edition. At £67.99 it is of excellent value. My review copy is going to the BIR library and I have purchased one for my own use.
Fred Wright from Oxford has produced an interesting book with a review of the whole field of chest radiology. It opens with a full page colour picture of Saint Ansanus, the Patron Saint of Sienna and of chest diseases. The saint is depicted as holding his trachea, lungs, heart and liver in his right hand. The original is in the Barber Institute in Birmingham.
The information is presented as a mixture of text, notes and line drawings. There is an accompanying CD-ROM. The references are particularly interesting and range from the mid 19th century pathologists and clinicians up to the present day. The book is a useful source for these older references, for with modern computer literature searches much of the historical literature is either ignored or difficult to access. There is a considerable amount of historical information in the text and this material is discussed and its significance assessed. There are few radiology books with references to Homer and Galen. The author has a lifetime's experience of chest radiology and clinical medicine which comes across in his discussion of the material. The book will be of interest to the practising chest radiologist although it is quite expensive at £175 even with the accompanying CD-ROM.
