{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.014453125, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0046875, 'mean_word_length': 4.88735632183908, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review: MR Imaging of the Skull and Brain

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has very quickly become not just a helpful modality to solve tricky neurology cases but more and more a primary modality as a result of an increasing knowledge combined with major technical improvements. As expected there are also an increasing number of excellent textbooks on MR imaging to which the present book can be added. The author has tried to produce a correlative text, which includes pathology, clinical symptomatoloy, and traditional radiology making up the basis :or an extensive discussion on the MR findings for each disease entity. The first 2 chapters, dealing with MR fundamentals and principles of examination and interpretation, were, according to the author, merely included to give the reader a direct access to information that might be necessary for a better understanding of the clinical chapters. Although the text of these chapters is succinct and informative it could have been omitted since it should not be necessary to include this information in each and every book published and thus increase the size and price tag of these already expensive books. Moreover, there is a rapid, continuous development of technical solutions which quite soon will make these chapters more or less out of date. The content of these chapters can be published in a cheaper form and thus on a more regular basis. The 3rd chapter is a fundamental description of normal anatomy pointing to important structures and their normal signal patterns. Then follow 6 thematic chapters, each dealing with classical neuroradiologic problems such as trauma, tumors, and infections. The last of the 10 chapters includes some miscellaneous conditions such as seizure disorders, effects of radiation and chemotherapy as well as bone diseases of the skull. The clinical chapters are quite uniform in their structure as mentioned above and the text is easy to read, informative, and well illustrated (690 figures containing 2455 separate illustrations). All in all, this is a very valuable and informative textbook that can be used as a reference on MR imaging of the skull and brain as well as an introduction to clinical MR imaging in this field. The value as a reference book is further emphasized by the addition of a listing of differential diagnoses cross-referenced by page at the end of the text of each disease entity. The book can thus be recommended to everyone interested in this subject but should be most valuable to those who are just now starting up their first MR unit.