Neuro-Ophthalmology Illustrated. Valerie Biousse and Nancy J. Newman. Thieme 2010, 624 pages, 892 illustrations, $69.95.
In this beautifully illustrated easily portable, light weight 624 pages soft cover book Neuro-Ophthalmology Illustrated the authors, Drs. Biousse and Newman, bring together clinical, fundoscopic, anatomic, and imaging correlations. For the neuroradiologist there is an excellent review of issues with which we deal with on a daily basis. Some examples are pointed out later in this review.
There are 20 chapters with the initial chapters concentrating on various aspects of the eye examination, including what the authors term ancillary tests (this includes basic material imaging- MR, CT, angiography, vascular ultrasound) in addition to evoked potentials, electro retinograms, flourscein angiography, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and orbital echography. To have some understanding of these non neuroradiology tests is important when we converse with our neurophthalmology colleagues. For example although OCT is routinely used in Ophthalmology how many of us know what this is how it is performed, and what it can show? Not many I bet—so in 1½ pages, one can gain at least some rudimentary appreciation of OCT.
The remaining 15 chapters deal individually with specific clinical problems such as transient visual loss, diplopia, nystagmus, and so forth. What makes this set up of interest to our specialty is that, one is able to digest all aspects of a disorder. Take INO as an example. Good diagrams with anatomic pathways are laid on MR images so lesions of the MLF are appreciated and these in turn are correlated with pictures of eye movements in a patient with bilateral internuclear ophthmoplegia. The chapter on the diagnosis of binocular diplopia bears reviewing (and re-reviewing),
A review such as this could cite example after example of such tight and meaningful correlations. I could not find any important diagnosis which was not included and while the imaging is neither complete nor comprehensive (it was never meant to be) for all the diseases, one gathers an appreciation of many of the other key elements of the disease (fundoscopic pictures, excellent anatomic drawings, patient pictures, images). Each section contains a highlighted “Pearls” paragraph. Scattered throughout are useful Tables; such as the one which lists the 7 common tumors of the optic nerves and chiasm, indicating for each the risk group, clinical features, imaging findings, management, and prognosis. While none of the imaging includes anything unexpected or particularly revealing to those who see sizeable amounts of brain and orbital MRs, the value of this book will be clear to anyone who picks it up and runs through the chapters. It would be a handy addition to any neuroradiology sectional library.
