M-Mode Echocardiographic Techniques and Pattern Recognition By Sonia Chang. Lea & Febiger, 600 Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA 19106. 1976, 1 6 0 pages; 1 3 6 illustrations. $7 .OO.

This book is a well written and well illustrated example of the kind of material that should be available to the doctors and ultrasonic specialists in their laboratories.

Very few, if any, techniques have been left out, and the flow of information is in a format that can be used for the beginner, as well as a review for the experienced doctor and ultra- sonic specialist.

I would recommend this book and its illustrations to the Board of Registry as a source of material for the Cardiology examination.

This book was written, not t o impress you, but to inform you of the many techniques used and patterns seen in ruling out or confirming cardiac diseases.

Clifford Williams Ultrasonic Technical Specialist

St. Anthony Hospital Denver, Colorado

Diagnostic Ultrasonics: Principles and Use of Instruments By W.N. McDicken, Ph,D., John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York, New York, $28.50

This book is the best available for beginning courses for physicians and sonographers in which a rather complete treatment of basic principles and instrumentation is desired.

The only alternative modern text with several chapters on basic principles and instrumen- tation is Dr. Gilbert Baum’s book “Fundamentals ?f Medical Ultrasonography ’’ which con- tains 170 pages of basic principles and instrumentation, as part of a large, authoritative text on most aspects of medical ultrasonography. In comparing these two texts, it is both an ad- vantage and a disadvantage that Dr. Baum’s book is influenced heavily by his own extensive experience in ultrasound research and clinical utilization. It contains many excellent illustra- tions of simple, as well as less widely understood, effects and principles. Dr. McDicken’s book, on the other hand, is a very clear and perhaps a more orderly presentation, well suited to a course for beginners of medical ultrasound.

There is no need to list the many topics which Dr. McDicken presents clearly and accu- rately. The following specific criticisms indicate relatively minor points which do not de- tract from the overall usefulness of the book. Although Dr. McDicken gives a clear explana- tion of scan converters,only the secondary emission mode of writing is described, rather than the equilibrium writing mode which is used most commonly for storage of ultrasound images. The secondary emission mode is used to erase the image. Placing the major discus- sion of transducers near the end of the text is a rather unique approach which must be eval- uated by experience. Hopefully, in the near future, the section on labeling planes of scans will not be as adventuresome as it was at the time of writing of the text. Although most of the artifacts present in ultrasound imaging are explained clearly in the section on A mode imaging, illustration of these artifacts, in the section on time motion and B mode imaging, are quite disappointing. Questions and problems on the material presented are a most im- portant educational resource lacking in this as well as other modern texts on this subject.

In summary, it is refreshing t o have now a text on basic principles and instrumentation which is suitable for self-study and courses extending beyond the short two-day or two- week “quickly course.”

Paul L. Carson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Radiology

University of Colorado Medical Center Denver, Colorado 80220

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