Nuclear Endocrinology

D. Piciu

New York, NY: Springer, 2017, 299 pages, $149.99

Nuclear Endocrinology, as stated in the preface, gives a broad overview of the field, allowing clinical endocrinologists to integrate nuclear medicine into their practice, and allowing residents and medical students to learn the basics of nuclear medicine and endocrinology.

This second edition of Nuclear Endocrinology, written by 5 contributors, consists of 2 parts with 11 chapters and covers most of the recent advances in nuclear endocrinology and general nuclear medicine. Part 1 (6 chapters) deals with basic knowledge of nuclear medicine such as dosimetry, radiation protection issues, equipment, and radiopharmaceuticals. Part 2 (5 chapters) introduces various diseases, including the anatomy and physiology of endocrine organs such as the thyroid glands, parathyroid glands, and adrenal glands, helping nuclear medicine physicians build a basic knowledge of endocrinology. Chapter 10 provides a detailed description of neuroendocrine tumors, along with up-to-date information on nuclear medicine therapy for them—a topic that will be useful for oncologists. Chapter 11 deals with hybrid PET in endocrinology and covers useful PET tracers in that field. Detailed information on general endocrine diseases is included, as are nuclear medicine images of various cases of each disease. Most of the figures are in color and are clear, and the tables are informative. The references are up to date, and the index helpful.

Although this book attempts to introduce all the latest knowledge on nuclear diagnostics and therapeutics for endocrine diseases, notably lacking are patient cases illustrating recently emerging therapies such as ¹⁷⁷Lu and ⁹⁰Y. In addition, most of the diagnostic images are ¹¹¹In-octreotide scans, and most of the hybrid PET images are ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scans; PET/CT images obtained with later tracers such as ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC/DOTATATE and ¹⁸F-FDOPA are scarce.

On the whole, Nuclear Endocrinology provides comprehensive coverage of basic nuclear medicine knowledge, various endocrine diseases, and the use of nuclear medicine in their diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, the book is a useful resource for both clinicians and nuclear medicine experts and, further, will help residents and medical students who want to expand their education on nuclear endocrinology.

• © 2018 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.