Mukherji SK, consulting ed. Gupta RK, guest ed. Neuroimaging Tropical Disease. Elsevier; November 2011. Neuroimaging Clinics of North America; vol. 21, no. 4, pgs. 737-988, $314 for a 12-month subscription.
The latest issue of the Neuroimaging Clinics of North America is entitled Neuroimaging Tropical Disease, and Dr. Rakesh K. Gupta was wisely chosen as the guest editor. Dr. Gupta is widely recognized as a leading authority in neuroradiology, particularly in advanced MR techniques. He has chosen 27 authors to write chapters on 14 subjects, most of which are germane to and specifically deal with tropical disease affecting the CNS. Most of this, of course, involves infections such as TB, fungal disease, parasitic disease, and viral infections, but some chapters and the material within them, although well written, do not exclusively pertain to tropical diseases. For example, in the chapter on craniovertebral anomalies the descriptions and illustrations of the anatomy and pathological conditions shown are standard fare, and there is no reason to suspect these abnormalities are more common in the tropics. Similar comments can be made relative to the chapter on Vascular Brain Pathologies: here we see diseases which those involved in neuroimaging often encounter. Another instance is the chapter or Hirayana Disease, which is certainly interesting, with the background of the disease and current concepts well explained along with good imaging, but again there is little here which suggests any preference to the tropics.
Those relatively minor considerations aside, the book is very effective in providing the pathology, clinical scenarios, and imaging of diseases less frequently encountered in the Northern Hemisphere. The first chapter correlates imaging with pathology (gross and histologic) in many of these diseases such as malaria, amebiasis, neurocysticercosis, TB, pyogenic infections, Toxoplasmosis, and a number of viral encephalitides such as the Nipah virus. These are just a few that are included.
Subsequent chapters then delve more deeply into each of these subjects. The chapter which deals with just pathology of tropical disease forms a basis for the imaging which follows in subsequent chapters. Here we read, among other entities, about tuberculosis explanations concerning the terminology/pathophysiology for granulomas, tuberculomas with solid caseation and liquefaction of caseation, and the non-granulomatous tuberculosis abscess. This chapter takes the reader through fungal infections (aspergillosis, Cryptococcosis, mucromycosis, blastomycosis, histoplasmosis), parasitic diseases, viral diseases, and nutritional deficiency states. While all entities are described and illustrated, particular emphasis is placed on the most frequent and important of the infections, such as Japaneses encephalitis, CNS tuberculosis, fungal infections, and parasitic infections. The book wanders a bit from its intended emphasis when we read the chapter on neuroimaging in postinfectious demyelination and nutritional disorders of the CNS. The material covers ADEM tumefactive demyelination, CMP/osmotic demyelination Wernicke’s, B12 deficiency. These are well summarized, but again the material is not exclusive to the tropics. As an aside, Dr. Mukherji (the consulting editor) noted in his Foreword that this publication is now known as “Neuroimaging Clinics” to reflect a worldwide interest and expertise in neuroimaging. Perhaps it was a mix up in communication, but the cover of this issue still carries the title of Neuroimaging Clinics of North America.
This book is another in a long line of solid contributions to the neuroradiology literature.
