Screening and Preventive Diagnosis with Radiological Imaging Book

Continuous technical developments of radiological imaging techniques have not only improved the potential of organ-based radiological diagnostics, but now also allow for dedicated whole-body exams which may be used in the field of screening and preventive diagnosis. The concept of this book is to provide clinicians with a broader understanding of screening and preventive diagnosis using radiological imaging. The first part of the book is dedicated to the fundamentals of screening and preventive diagnosis, and will comprise chapters on epidemiology and pathology, technical and organizational aspects of radiological screening, and chapters on legal issues and cost-risk analysis. The second part of the book will discuss the most important practical examples of radiological screening and surveillance, both for unselected populations, as well as for individual risk groups.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Edward I Bluth, MD(Ochsner Clinic Foundation)
Description:This is an ambitious book that seeks to report on the current status of screening, covering the latest innovations in imaging. It is divided into sections on the fundamentals of screening, the technical parameters of the different types of imaging tools available, and then specific recommendations for screening specific organs. It also covers preventive diagnoses for risk areas such as asbestos, smoking, breast cancer, and hepatitis.
Purpose:The objective is to provide recommendations on how to screen patients with the plethora of imaging tools available. However, the book only somewhat meets it.
Audience:This book would be worthwhile for those involved in public health decisions regarding coverage for screening imaging services as well as referring doctors confused about which imaging studies should be ordered for a healthy screening population.
Features:The book covers fundamentals of screening, including epidemiology and statistics, and pathology. Technical issues relating to different modalities such as MRI, US, CT, mammography, and PET/CT are also covered. Specific chapters discuss recommendations for cardiovascular, oncological, and congenital diseases, among others. Lastly, a group of chapters covers screening for exogenous exposure such as smoking and asbestosis as well screening for genetic predisposition for breast and thyroid cancer.
Assessment:This is a worthwhile book but somewhat overambitious for its size. It fills a need for a book that focuses on screening and not diagnosis. However, it sometimes confuses screening studies with diagnostic examinations as in the chapter on screening for carotid stenosis, where there is a discussion of a complete carotid diagnostic US exam and not a screening exam (which has been proposed in the literature but not included or discussed in this book).