Volume 6 Issue 3 - Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine

Book reviews
Book reviews
Title:
Author:
Publisher:
Techniques in Noninvasive Vascular
Diagnosis. An Encyclopedia of
Vascular testing.
Robert J. Daigle BA, RVT
Summer Publishing, Littleton, Colorado
Email: Summerpublishing@aol.com
Approximate Price: $140 which includes shipping and
handling. Order by contacting
www.summerpublishing.com
As the title suggests, this is a very practical publication on
how to perform vascular ultrasound scanning and functional
non-invasive vascular tests. It is concise and the majority of
it is in point form. It does not cover in depth, the anatomy
and physiology/pathophysiology of arterial and venous
systems but does cover the basic anatomy of each region
and some physiology/ haemodynamics.
It covers the majority of applications of vascular ultrasound.
There are chapters covering:
Principles of Doppler ultrasound, carotid duplex scanning
and interpretation (includes measurement of stenosis by
angiography and duplex), vertebral and subclavian
imaging, venous anatomy and haemodynamics, venous
imaging and photoplethysmography, vein mapping preop,
and upper arm venous imaging.
Arterial chapters cover relevant basic anatomy, physiology
and haemodynamics, leg artery duplex imaging, physiologic
testing which includes ankle/brachial index, pulse volume
recording, Doppler waveform analysis and exercise testing.
Arterial bypass grafts/stents are covered as well as upper arm
arterial duplex and non imaging methods.
Other areas covered are vasculogenic impotence,
transcranial Doppler, abdominal scanning fundamentals and
haemodialysis access fistulas and grafts.
The diagrams in the text are clear and well labeled.
Ultrasound images in the text are also clear, easy on the eye
and relevant to the text. Unfortunately all images are black
and white. Colour images of colour Doppler signals could
have given more information and been more educational.
Scattered throughout each chapter are relevant tips,
suggestions and pitfalls to look out for which are based on
the authors extensive experience in vascular ultrasound.
The publication is ringbound which on the positive side has
kept the price low, however, if used extensively, the pages
may tear and fall out.
The chapter on abdominal vascular imaging is quite basic
with limited and dated information on abdominal aortic
endoluminal grafts.
Importantly, to assist the reader, there are references at the
end of every chapter and suggested additional reading.
There are also 30 MCQ review questions and answers at its
conclusion.
As mentioned previously, this is a very practical, “how to
do it” type of publication which would be very beneficial
to sonographers working in isolation or in remote areas
where supervision or peer support is minimal. Its coverage
of topics such as anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology
and haemodynamics is quite basic, so it would not be
adequate to satisfy the DMU vascular syllabus. It would be
a useful adjunct to have in practices that are educating
sonographers in vascular ultrasound as it gives an accurate
“step by step” approach to vascular scanning. This
publication would be of benefit not only to the trainee but
the trainer as well.
Warren Lewis DMU (Vascular)
CardioVascular ascular Centre, Newcastle, Australia
Title:
Differential diagnosis in obstetric and
gynecologic ultrasound
Authors:
RAL Bisset, AN Khan, and NB Thomas
Publishers: Saunders (Elsevier Science Inc)
Year: 2002
Approximate Price: $A123 (including GST)
Differential Diagnosis in Obstetrics and Gynecologic
Ultrasound is a terrific book and one that is going to stay
close by my side during day-to-day clinical work. The 2002
publication is the second edition of the text, the first edition
having been published in 1996. The authors are radiologists
from Manchester, UK.
The book is a soft-covered book of some 430 pages. Its
purpose is to provide a compact handbook that provides a
lot of diagnostic information in a concise, list style format.
Lists of possible diagnoses are combined, where applicable,
with more detailed explanatory paragraphs. The very
detailed Contents list and Index make it easy to find topics
of interest, an important feature of a book designed to
provide readily accessible information in the clinical setting.
My initial reaction on opening the book was negative, as it
has no images or diagrams. However, as the authors point
out this allows the production of a small, compact handbook
providing a great deal of diagnostic information, and this it
certainly does. After reading the contents of the text, the lack
of images and diagrams seems far less important. The
information is well sourced and good reference lists are
provided at the end of each section (often a single page). I
found this a very useful feature as it would allow easy followup
of areas of particular interest and allows the reader to
see the quality of the source material very quickly and easily.
The majority of the text is devoted to obstetrics,
approximately 360 pages in total, with good coverage of all
areas including early pregnancy, fetal anomalies and growth
and well-being. I found the section on the fetal
musculoskeletal system particularly well done as this is an
area where there is often so much information in
ASUM ULTRASOUND BULLETIN VOLUME 6 NUMBER 3 AUGUST 2003
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