Breast Imaging Review: A Quick Guide to Essential Diagnoses

B.A. Shah, G.M. Fundaro, and S. Mandava

New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media, 2010, 240 pages, $69.95

This book was designed to be a concise review for residents preparing for oral board examinations and contains useful illustrations of mammography, breast ultrasound, and breast MRI. It includes 92 easy-to-read cases presenting common diagnoses and provides examples of brief radiologic descriptions of breast imaging findings, applying appropriate Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADS) terminology.

The format of the book is simple. It is divided into 2 sections. The authors intentionally arranged the cases in random order to reflect the format of the oral board examinations. Section 1 includes 79 cases involving mammography and ultrasound, and section 2 includes 13 cases involving breast MRI. Each case begins with the patient history, followed by a description of the radiologic findings and the BIRADS assessment. Although each case ends with a brief discussion that includes teaching points, a differential diagnosis is not included in most cases. Current references are provided to facilitate further reading on that topic. At the end of the book, a brief summary of image-guided procedures and high-yield facts provides the reader with an organized review of important points in breast imaging that can serve as a quick reference.

The content of the book is adequate and gives examples of a wide variety of benign, malignant, and high-risk lesions using multimodality imaging. Most of the images are clearly printed and of high quality, and the teaching points are easily understood. Though legends are given for each case, most images are not annotated with the major findings. Readers should be cautioned that in several cases, the BIRADS category rendered by the authors applies to the final diagnosis after work-up and does not accurately reflect the imaging findings displayed at presentation.

In summary, this user-friendly case-based book is a helpful resource for residents and fellows in training or preparing for the oral board examinations. Medical students and technologists interested in reviewing the basics of breast imaging may also find the book useful. It successfully integrates a comprehensive array of images, diagnoses, and discussion points into a quickly reviewable format but would be of limited value to experienced breast radiologists.

• © 2011 by Society of Nuclear Medicine