Fahn S, Jankovic J, Hallet M. Principles and Practice of Movement Disorders, 2nd ed. Saunders Elsevier, 2011, 556 pages, $219.00.
Drs. Fahn, Jankovic, and Hallet (all neurologists) have written a comprehensive 556-page book entitled Principles and Practice of Movement Disorders. This robust and definitive text describes the major aspects of this set of diseases by basically dividing the clinical material into 2 sections: Hypokinetic disorders and Hyperkinetic disorders. These 2 sections follow a 65-page overview of this subject which includes a historical background, prevalence of various symptoms related to these disorders, and an enormous amount of material in tabular form related to gene localization abnormalities in movement disorders. The latter is 12 pages in length; this is a reference unto itself and is an important resource for all those involved in clinical care and clinical research in movement disorders. Very nice additions to this book—available when one uses the web site (via an accompanying scratch off code unique to each book)—are the innumerable video clips demonstrating patients with these disorders. This electronic component adds new and important education to a textbook like this one.
There is deep science throughout the book, and one need to only to look through the chapters on motor control (voluntary/involuntary) and the chapter on functional neuro-anatomy of the basal ganglia to appreciate the important basic information provided.
Concerning the clinical/disease chapters, the hypokinetic section deals with all forms parkinsonism including: Parkinson disease; Parkinson plus syndromes such as progressive supranuclear palsy; multisystem atrophy; cortico basal degeneration; heredodegenerative parkinsonism, which includes many entities such as frontotemporal dementia, SCA, Lewy Body disease; and acquired parkinsonism such as post-infectious, drug induced, toxicity induced, post-traumatic parkinsonism, among others.
There is far more here than a neuroradiologist needs to know relative to movement disorders, and the imaging itself is somewhat scant. What images are present could have been of higher quality, larger in size, and more sharply defined. While there is description of the findings in most diseases, they are not illustrated in many instances. For example, in the area of heredodegenerative parkinsonism the authors discuss prion diseases and mention neuroimaging, but do not show any cases on MR. A good teaching opportunity in imaging was lost (as in other cases).
For those radiologists with a deep interest in movement disorders, and for those who work in an academic setting where many such patients are seen, having access to what surely is a foremost publication in this field would be beneficial.
