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Medical Imaging of Normal and Pathologic

Anatomy, by Joel A. Vilensky, Edward C. Weber,
Thomas E. Sarosi, and Stephen W. Carmichael

Article in Clinical Anatomy May 2011

DOI: 10.1002/ca.21163

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BOOK REVIEW
Medical Imaging of Normal and Patho-
logic Anatomy, by Joel A. Vilensky, Edward C.
Weber, Thomas E. Sarosi, and Stephen W. Carmichael, Phil-
adelphia, PA: Saunders/Elsevier, 2010, 192 pages (331
images), $39.95, ISBN-13: 978-1-4377-0634-5.
Medical Imaging of Normal and Pathologic Anatomy is a
timely and useful book for medical students, students of
clinical anatomy, and anatomy faculty. The book opens with
an engaging forward by David Macaulay, who is the author
of The Way We Work, a brief acknowledgement page, and
an introduction that gives the raison detre for this book
and how it is set up. Before proceeding to describe the text
of this book, readers will enjoy using this Table of Contents.
Beside the breakdown of the pathologic conditions into
their anatomically relevant regions, the medical imaging
technique, such as radiographic, CT, MRI, or ultrasound, is
Fig. 1. a: Axial CT scan depicts an epidural hemor-
rhage, which usually results from a skull fracture that lac-
erates a branch of the middle meningeal artery. b: AP hip
radiographs (normal on the left, fractured femur on the
right). Femoral neck fractures are associated with osteo-
C 2011
V Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Clinical Anatomy 24:525 526 (2011)
listed next to the pathologic condition under consideration.
Also, each heading for the anatomical regions is color coded
and reected in the text with the same color coding. The
text has 8 sections representing the regions of the body,
head and neck, thorax, abdomen, pelvis and perineum,
back, upper and lower limbs, and the eighth is Other,
which shows a whole body radionuclide bone scan. With
color coding for each anatomical section at the top of the
page, a reader can easily discern in which region of the
body they are looking at. The format for the text provides
for a pleasant and useful learning environment, because it
presents a normal image next to an abnormal image for a
particular region or cross-sectionusing the same imaging
technique in both images (Fig. 1a and 1b). The side-by-side
placement of the images also allows for easier labeling and
indication of the abnormality or pathology. At the bottom of
the page, there are usually color-coded references to Grays
porosis, especially in elderly women. (Presented by cour-
tesy of and with permission from Saunders/Elsevier,
2010.) [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue,
which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
*Correspondence to: Geoffrey D. Guttmann, Windsor, ON Canada.
E-mail: gguttmann@cogeco.ca
Received 22 January 2011; Accepted 3 February 2011
Published online 18 April 2011 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ca.21163
 526 Book Review
Anatomy for Students (2nd edition) or Clinically Oriented
Anatomy (6th edition), or both. It nishes with an 11-page
index, which is thorough and complete.
The authors do well to keep the number of leader lines to a
minimum. The lines only indicate the important anatomical
structures or landmarks one can easily see on the radiological
image and use correlating leader lines on the abnormal image
to truly help the student see the correlations. An issue for this
reviewer is the use of red leader lines on the radiological
images. It would be more prudent and also provide better visu-
alization if the leader lines are in a bright color, such as orange,
sky blue, or a color that is distinguishable from the black and
gray of the medical images. Examples of good use of color in
identication of structures are the yellow arrows on page 102,
Epididymitis, or the dashed yellow line on page 112, Spondylo-
listhesis (Secondary to Pars Defect). Research shows that red
and black can become indistinguishable for some peoples color
vision. Another concern is the use of black text on a light green
background. It would be better to use a white background and
outline the box in maybe forest green. Lastly, there is a lot of
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white space on many of the text pages. If the book has a land-
scape orientation instead of portrait, the images could be larger
or more images could be arranged side by side.
The authors intention, as stated in the introduction, is to
help medical students develop their skills in pattern recogni-
tion, especially in its application to radiologic images. They
have denitely accomplished this task. The learner now has an
excellent text to learn not only normal radiologic anatomy but
the reason to understand the normal by observing some of the
more prevalent abnormal anatomy or pathology on radiologic
images. Medical students in their preclinical or clerkship years
would nd this book exceedingly useful when they are correlat-
ing their newly learned pathology or clinical knowledge to their
recently acquired anatomical knowledge. Medical Imaging of
Normal and Pathologic Anatomy is a worthwhile addition to
anyones collection of anatomical reference books.
Geoffrey D.Guttmann*
Windsor, Ontario, Canada