British Journal of Radiology (2003) 76, 666
© 2003 British Institute of Radiology
doi:
Atlas of chest sonography. Ed. by G Mathis and KD Lessnau, pp. ix+179, 2003 (Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany), £63.00 ISBN 3-540-44262-6
J A Holemans
This is the American English translation of the original German text that was published in 2001. Although titled an atlas, it is more of a small very well illustrated textbook. There are 10 chapters, which are mostly anatomical divisions, but there are also a couple of chapters dealing with specific clinical situations. The book does not cover echocardiography and although there are a couple of passing references made to paediatric practice the book mainly considers adult chest ultrasound. The illustrations as one should expect from an atlas are good, although some are a bit small and some of the plain film reproduction is poor. Many cases also show the corresponding CT and plain films, which is a nice feature.
As you might expect from a multiauthor text, some chapters are better than others. The chapter on endobronchial ultrasound and the section on transoesophageal ultrasound of the mediastinum are good and illustrate the enormous potential of these techniques to improve staging and obtain tissue diagnosis. The chapter dealing with a white hemithorax is the most like a traditional atlas, well illustrated with good cases and the minimum of text. The final chapter attempts to describe a stepwise imaging approach to common pathology in just 13 pages and is overly ambitious and should have been left to a larger multimodality chest imaging text.
I have some reservations about this book. First, the translation to English prose is poor, which makes the text disagreeable to read. Second, it is apparent that the book has not been revised since the original publication date so there are no references post-2000. Finally I am concerned that the authors in their enthusiasm to demonstrate the capability of chest ultrasound may have forgotten to properly consider its role relative to other modalities such as CT or MRI. For example, the book recommends the first line use of chest ultrasound for suspected pulmonary embolism when current British Thoracic Society guidelines recommend spiral CT. However, if you want an overview of current chest ultrasound illustrated with good clinical cases you should consider this book.
