Book Reviews

Clinical PET and PET/CT

H. Jadvar and J. A. Parker

New York, NY: Springer, 2005, 279 pages, $69.95

This is a small book consisting of 279 pages that are divided into 18 chapters. The first chapter covers in reasonable detail the basic physics of and instrumentation used in PET and PET/CT in an effort to describe the technical aspects of the cameras and imaging requirements. The second chapter covers mainly the radiopharmaceuticals commonly used in clinical PET. A brief chapter with no clear structure follows on PET cardiology and neurology. The remaining chapters focus on the different oncologic PET applications classified by organ or body system. The oncology chapters cover most of the common tumors imaged with PET and usually start with a brief clinical introduction about the tumor followed by the expected findings on PET and PET/CT. Interestingly, the book contains a separate chapter about PET of pediatric disorders. The last chapter highlights common variants and pitfalls in PET and PET/CT. Overall, the chapters are brief, except for the chapter on physics and instrumentation. The illustrations are abundant and include good-quality images from PET studies and multiple correlative radiologic images, although some of the PET images appear to be coarse and of poor resolution and may have been acquired with an older PET scanner. All images are printed in black and white. The reference citations are fairly recent and adequate for each chapter. However, they are not keyed to the exact information being referenced in the chapter but are simply listed under the subtitles of each chapter.

The information presented in this book is concise and clinically oriented. Therefore, the book would be a good pocket reference for radiologists or nuclear medicine physicians who need quick access to PET and PET/CT information when dealing with patients with cancer. The book is also a good reference for residents and fellows. I personally enjoyed the brief introduction of medical information on every cancer type. This book also strongly emphasizes the advantages of PET and PET/CT in staging cancer and evaluating the effects of therapy. Finally, the book is easy to read and is interesting.