Brain and Spine Imaging Patterns

McGraw-Hill’s Brain and Spine Imaging Patterns is impressive, and when I read through it, it seemed as if the book’s pages were covered more by images than by words. This ratio certainly contributed to my sense that this book is a very nice, well-organized teaching file.

The organization of the book is notable. In particular, I was very pleased with the inclusion of large sections of the book on computed tomographic scan pattern appearance and even plain film radiographic patterns. The inclusion of x-ray patterns and appearances seemed unusual to me and is quite welcome indeed. The combination of brain with spine patterns in the same book is also notable in terms of potential value. It is probably a sign of the times that the organization of the book starts with magnetic resonance imaging, moves to computed tomography, and ends with x-ray. Some of the diagnoses seemed to me to be quite unusual, and their imaging appearance thus presented seemed to me to be a bit nonspecific, but nonetheless, I found these examples quite interesting.

I would characterize this book as intermediate in terms of portability. It fits in my backpack but makes it feel a bit heavy. In my view, it seems best suited for a place in an office or a reading room library.

The vast majority of the images seemed to me to be quite acceptable. The accompanying text was, I thought, complementary to the figures. In terms of suggested improvements, some of the images appeared to me to be a bit dark, and some appeared to be scanned film. As well, some of the verbiage seemed a bit nonstandard to me, for example, “plain radiography” instead of “plain film radiography” or “x-ray.”

Overall, I enjoyed reviewing this book. It is probably not unusual for a radiologist to enjoy going through a well-organized teaching file and/or discussing imaging appearances and patterns, and I guess I am no exception.

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Brain and Spine Imaging Patterns

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