MedicalScienceBooks.com medical book review:

   Dominique Didier and Osman Ratib present their cumulative experience in this excellent handbook covering the rapidly evolving field of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR).  The first chapter provides an overview of techniques, while the subsequent six sections and the accompanying CD-ROM address specific areas where CMR has clinical utility.  Topics include congenital heart disease, thoracic aortic abnormalities, cardiac masses, valvular heart disease, pericardial disease, cardiomyopathies, and ischemic heart disease. This coverage is comprehensive, given the most common referrals for CMR evaluation.

     The chapter on techniques does a good job of avoiding bias toward any given vendor of MR equipment, even though significant differences exist, for example, in real-time imaging, free-breathing techniques, and user interface/postprocessing. A brief coverage of k-space and other pertinent MR physics principles would have been helpful, particularly for readers getting started in the field of CMR. 

     The section on congenital heart disease is quite thorough, with a nice presentation of the segment-by-segment approach for defining the simplest to the most complex cardiac anomalies.  The illustrations in this section are excellent and provide a good reference set for all major congenital anomalies and their long-term complications.  Similarly, the chapters on aortic anomalies and cardiac masses cover a broad spectrum of disorders with representative cases.

     As important as the high-quality anatomic information generated by CMR are its quantitative capabilities, which provide complementary physiological assessment of cardiovascular diseases.  Both velocity-encoded cine MR and cine gradient echo-based techniques are well described in the chapter on valvular heart disease. Validation with invasive techniques is mentioned, and facilitates its routine use in most comprehensive CMR examinations.

     Both the sections on cardiomyopathies and ischemic heart disease omit discussion of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging, one of the most important advances in CMR in the past decade.  LGE, or delayed myocardial enhancement, provides visualization of myocardial scar due to infarction and other disorders, matched only by TTC staining of the explanted heart. If performed correctly with, for instance, inversion time optimization as well as the knowledge required to recognize underlying mechanisms responsible for different patterns of late enhancement, this technique can provide significant insight into etiology and prognosis. 

     Also missing from the text is any mention of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a frequent referral question but infrequent CMR diagnosis if appropriate imaging technique and strict diagnostic criteria are used.  More detail on acquisition parameters for the images shown throughout the book could have been included in the CD-ROM, as space limitations would probably limit their inclusion in the printed text.  

     Overall, the text can serve as a handy reference for technologists, trainees, and practicing MR physicians. This book is a nice compendium of most of the diagnoses that can be made definitively with CMR. Other books in the field may provide more detail on technique, particularly MR physics and newer techniques such as myocardial scar visualization, topics that could be included in subsequent editions without affecting its portability.

Ratings (1-4 , 4 being the highest):

Organization of information:    4

Usefulness of book:     3

Suitable for intended audience:    3

Author’s objectives met:     

Significant number of illustrations:     4

Quality of illustrations:    3

Table of Contents: 

Chapter 1.     Cardiac MR Imaging Techniques

Chapter 2.     Congenital Heart Disease

Chapter 3.     Thoracic Aorta

Chapter 4.     Cardiac Masses

Chapter 5.     Valvular Heart Disease

Chapter 6.     Pericardial Disease and Cardiomyopathy

Chapter 7.     Ischemic Heart Disease

Chapter 8.     Index

Chapter 9.     Dynamic Cardiac MRI-- Companion CD