Radiology Review Manual 6th edition by Wolfgang F. Dähnert has helped thousands of readers prepare for--and successfully complete--their written boards. It's organized by body region and provides extensive lists of image findings and differential diagnoses that are associated with specific disease entities. An accessible outline format, a "shorthand" style, and a thorough index make must-know facts easy to find, review, and remember.
The organization within the individual chapters follows the practical approach of reading films. The initial step of film interpretation is the description of radiologic patterns that serves to identify categories in which they belong. Therefore, radiologic patterns for differential diagnoses are found in the first portion of a chapter. Once the diagnostic possibilities have been reviewed in brief outline, one can look up detailed information about a disease entity in the last segment of a chapter. The disease entities are presented in alphabetical order. Both these segments are separated by a few pages of functional, anatomic, or embryologic aspects. Occasionally, important clinical signs and their differential diagnoses, relevant to the practice of radiology, are included in the first portion of a chapter. Choices had to be made where to present systemic diseases within the topographical scheme. Mnemonics have been liberally added by request. A table of contents and abbreviations used throughout the book are found in front. The index, which selectively refers to those pages with significant information, concludes the manual and is usually the starting point for many. The index also includes so-called “buzz words†that are miraculously attached to diseases.
The backbone of the book is disease entities, radiologic symptoms, as well as lists of differential diagnosis. Disease entities are headed by their most commonly used name with other designations listed below. As a radiologic diagnosis should be entertained in context with its probability to be correct, percentages in regard to frequency of signs and symptoms are included liberally, often giving the lowest and the highest number found in the literature. The truth may be somewhere in between for a nonselected patient population, and occasionally a third number is provided between the high and low number as the most frequently cited. Arbitrary choices have been made in situations when different or contradictory results are found in the literature—unfortunately, an occurrence not at all infrequent.
Lists of differential diagnoses can be presented in many fashions. There is no right or wrong way, but there certainly is a chaotic versus an organized approach. An orderly thought process portrays familiarity with a problem. Examinees have always felt that “nailing†the diagnosis is secondary, but including it in one's consideration is paramount to a successful exam. Accordingly, an attempt is made to categorize differential diagnostic considerations or etiologies of certain diseases in a manner digestible for recapitulation. It is a common experience that this is not always possible, logically satisfactory, or complete.
Book Details
- Paperback: 1232 pages
- Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 6 edition (April 1, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0781766206
- ISBN-13: 9780781766203
- Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches