This book is mainly addressed to medical students and young residents beginning training in radiology.  It is difficult nowadays to find a radiological textbook that covers all the diagnostic imaging disciplines in a concise and easy way.  It is even more difficult to find an updated book that shows the applications of new diagnostic imaging techniques that are part of the radiological workup. This is mainly due to the rapid evolution of radiology, with the introduction of new imaging modalities in the diagnostic pathway. On the other hand, the current trend in radiology is a fragmentation of the discipline in many sub-specialties.  However, students and residents need to look at radiology and to learn diagnostic imaging as a whole discipline.

This book nicely addresses these needs, and gives a fast and comprehensive overview of diagnostic imaging. The authors use a simple and incisive teaching strategy by providing 100 exemplary clinical cases that can be better and faster retained by students than classic medical book chapters.

Each clinical case consists of two pages. The first page contains the more explicative images of the case (always including two or more imaging modalities, e.g. x-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography and magnetic resonance).  The images are of  excellent quality in all cases and easily allow identification of the main findings. The second page includes a brief medical history of the patient, a paragraph (called “comments”) on the most relevant features of the disease (definition, incidence, pathology, clinical presentation, natural history, treatment) and the role of the different imaging modalities in its diagnosis and follow-up. Finally, there is a brief paragraph about the most important imaging findings.

The 100 cases cover the most relevant and frequent pathologies a radiologist has to deal with in daily practice. There are ten cases for each of the ten main sub-specialties of radiology: breast imaging; cardiovascular imaging; thoracic radiology; gastrointestinal radiology; genitourinary, gynecological and obstetrical imaging; musculoskeletal imaging; neuroimaging and head and neck imaging; nuclear medicine; pediatric radiology; and ultrasound imaging.  At the end of each chapter, there is a “further readings” section with recommended books, web links and articles for further in depth study.

Medical students and young residents who are beginning to attend radiology departments, but not only, must have basic knowledge of the different imaging modalities, their usefulness in different clinical settings and the main imaging findings of diseases, so that they can benefit the most from their practical apprenticeship. With this book, they can become familiar with the different imaging techniques and learn to consider them as complementary tools to achieve a diagnosis.

The book is therefore extremely interesting and useful, for radiologists in training but also for more experienced colleagues who require a simple update, with explicative cases, on the potentials of the different imaging modalities.