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The title of this book being Basic Musculoskeletal Imaging may sound ironic to some. It was customary to name a book “Basic” in radiology when only plain radiographs were discussed, but times have changed. Cross-sectional imaging such as CT and MRI, and even ultrasound and scintigraphy, once considered advanced imaging proved to be basic and are now mainstays in radiology.
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Michael Weitz, Executive Editor in the medical publishing division of McGraw-Hill, and I saw a void for an easy-to-read teaching textbook that is primarily targeted to medical students and residents in radiology, orthopedics, and physical therapy and rehabilitation and that addresses the basic aspects of not only general diagnostic but also advanced imaging of musculoskeletal (MSK) radiology.
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My and all contributors' efforts have been to create an MSK book that presents the materials in a simple and fluent text with superb example figures and illustrations that assist in a better understanding and learning of the subject. Each chapter has one or more lists of “Pearls,” which summarize the highlights and take-home messages of that section or chapter.
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The senior authors and contributors of this book are all experts in their subject matter and are presenting the latest information in the literature. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the concepts of using different modalities in MSK imaging. The next four chapters superbly discuss and illustrate MSK trauma in the upper and lower extremities, axial skeleton, and pediatrics. Chapter 6 provides analysis with arthritis and infection in detail. Chapter 7 covers the essentials of common bone and soft tissue neoplasms. The basics of metabolic bone diseases are elegantly discussed and superbly illustrated in Chapter 8. The causes of bone infarct and types of osteochondroses are discussed in Chapter 9. The reader will find information on how to evaluate orthopedic hardware and its complications in Chapter 10. The signs in MSK imaging are an interesting addition to this book in Chapter 11. Chapters 12 through 18 are dedicated to the basics of MSK MRI of different joints in the upper and lower extremities and axial skeleton. Our international experts from France and Brazil dedicated a great introduction to MSK ultrasound that appears in Chapter 19. Finally, the current advances in MSK scintigraphy is the topic of the last chapter.
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I would like to thank all the authors and contributors of this book for their hard work and their fine products and timely contributions. I am highly indebted to the great contributions of John Lotfi, JD, for his help in researching, editing, and proofreading of the text and illustrations of this book, and obtaining necessary permissions. I also thank Arash David Tehranzadeh for his contribution and line drawings for this book. I am highly grateful to Robert Pancotti, Senior Project Development Editor in the medical publishing division of McGraw-Hill, for his great assistance and kindness. I also thank Michael Weitz for giving me the opportunity to put this book together. Last but not least, I thank Dr. Donald Resnick for his gracious foreword to this book.
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