Kanekar SG, ed. Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disorders. Thieme; 2015; 424 pp; 595 ill; $189.99
Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disorders is an important book. Edited by Dr. Kanekar from Penn State University College of Medicine, with 84 contributors, the book nicely combines the clinical, imaging, pathological, and epidemiology of the many types of neurodegenerative disorders. The beauty of the book is that the authors come from many disciplines (neurology, radiology, pathology, biomedical, engineering, and psychiatry), which has allowed proper integration of information from those specialties in all chapters.
Divided logically into 16 parts with a total of 41 chapters, the material starts with an introduction to neurodegenerative disorders, followed by:
- Imaging techniques (including structures involved, MRS, SPECT/PET, DTI, fMR, and CTA/MRA/perfusion)
- Normal aging (imaging and iron accumulation, with a very peculiar legend for figure 8.8 that incorrectly describes the findings and starts with an apology)
- Alzheimer disease (starts with MCI and goes through genetics, neuropathology, imaging and pathology)
- Non-Alzheimer cortical dementia (Lewy body dementia, FT dementia)
- Extrapyramidal syndromes (Parkinson, atypical Parkinson syndromes, secondary Parkinsonism)
- Vascular dementia (imaging, hereditary angiopathies, vasculitis)
- Infection/inflammatory conditions (HIV dementia, non-HIV infectious dementia, prion disease, immune mediated dementia)
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Tumor-related cognitive dysfunction (brain tumors, paraneoplastic syndromes)
- Posttraumatic cognitive disorders,
- Endocrine, toxic, metabolic, and drug-related dementias
- Inborn errors of metabolism (resulting in cognitive decline)
- Cerebellar degenerative/dysfunction/ataxia
- Motor neuron disorders
- Clinical approach and treatment (includes reversible/irreversible dementias, treatment of dementia, deep brain stimulation)
The imaging (both MR and nuclear studies) is excellent, and for the neuroradiologist there is a wide display of advanced MR imaging (all techniques) and nuclear imaging. The latter is particularly educational because many neuroradiologists have limited responsibilities in primary evaluation of such studies.
While in the evaluation of the book one could use any chapter to discuss the benefits of the material (as all chapters are uniformly strong), one can take the 3 chapters on Alzheimer disease as an example of the material’s educational value. Although some of the material is written for those with minimal exposure to common MR sequences (perhaps psychiatrists or neurologists, for example), much of the text and illustrations would be a solid review for neuroradiologists. Included here are items such as the primary vulnerable cortical regions, preclinical staging and assessments, PET and SPECT scans, websites for calculating various morphological changes, amyloid related abnormalities (effusions and hemorrhage), comparison with other adult dementias, amyloid and neurofibrillary binding ligands and their limitations, early clinical diagnosis, pMR, and fMR and rsfMR. The chapter on MRI with correlative histopathology gives the reader an understanding of the macro- and microstructural alterations in Alzheimer disease.
The quality of those 3 chapters are mirrored in the other chapters, and as a result, Imaging of Neurodegenerative Disorders for neuroradiologists is a recommended purchase and, certainly, should be part of a sectional library.
