Abstract
This volume contains 167 cases of patients with a large variety of neurological conditions including cases on supra and infratentorial neoplasms, infections, leptomeningeal processes, vascular disorders, white matter disorders, noninfectious inflammatory disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, trauma, the phakomatoses, congenital malformations and syndromes, disorders of cortical malformation and cases on each cranial nerve. These cases span a large spectrum as both common disorders and rare entities are to be found throughout.
Each case is supported by several CT and/or MR images, and begins with a case presentation followed by radiological findings, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, a detailed case discussion and pertinent suggested readings. In the detailed case discussions there is more background on the clinical entity under discussion presented in a succinct manner, an aetiological comment, clinical findings, complications, pathology, image findings and treatment. In other words, this is also a rather useful review of many neurological disorders, designed in large part to give the reader a case-based context to remember the pertinent radiological and clinical features outlined.
An interesting and most important addition to all the cases is the presence of bulleted ‘Pitfalls and Pearls’ in the form of marginal notes. These are extremely valuable and reflect the considerable experience of the authors. Also in the cranial nerve section there is the addition of information on anatomy, function and pathology of each cranial nerve prior to the case presentations. Further the reproductions of the neuroimages in this volume are of high quality and more than adequate for a thorough coverage of the topics and review.
The authors and publishers should be congratulated in extending the educational usefulness of this volume by planning to post additional cases on its web site. For those considering purchasing this text this will be a useful area to preview the format and for those with the volume this will extent the usefulness of the text. The URL is: http://www.thieme.com/display/663
This atlas is useful for residents in radiology or fellows in neuroradiology preparing for examinations. It will also benefit neurology or neurosurgery residents or other housestaff rotating in neuroradiology and general radiologists who will find it to be an helpful volume as an easy reference in daily practice. The cases do not have to be studied in any particular order but if one wishes an in-depth study or review of one of the major topics then completing an entire section does make the learning comprehensive from this reviewer's point of view.
For headache physicians there is a lot in this text since a lot of the cases, understandably present with a complaint of headache. This is not at all surprising and for those with an interest in headache and case based learning this is an ideal tool to use in any teaching session. There is a lot to learn from this book and this reviewer predicts that even after it is used it will be used again and again as a reference and review book. It is very user friendly and highly recommended to anyone with an interest in clinical neurology.