This is the seventh edition of a successful book, the first edited in 1981 and then republished approximately every 5 years. The sixth edition was published in 2009, and this edition has not only been updated, but also enriched by the addition of many images and illustrations also in colour allowing a clearer understanding of the text. The text is supported by a companion website where interactive multiple choice questions and answers for each chapter can be found, as well as figures from the book in PowerPoint format. The textbook also comes with free access to a Wiley E-text powered by Vital Source, i.e. a digital interactive version that can be downloaded.

The authors are Andrea Rockall, Professor of Radiology at Imperial College London, Andrew Hatrick, Consultant General and Interventional Radiologist at the Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Frimley (UK), Peter Armstrong, formerly Professor of Radiology in London and in Charlottesville, and Martin Wastie, formerly Professor of Radiology in Kuala Lumpur and in Nottingham. Their goal was to allow readers to understand the principles underlying the interpretation of the most important diagnostic imaging procedures, providing an accurate description of each available modality, including ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, interventional radiology and imaging with radionuclides. For all of them both the techniques used and the most important indications in clinical practice are defined.

The book consists of 17 chapters for a total of 508 pages, enriched with more than 600 photographs, many of which are in colour and all of them of high quality and provided with very detailed explanatory notes. As a further didactic approach both normal and pathological images are presented in different formats allowing a better understanding of the appearance of normal and pathological states, and there is also an appendix, also based on a comparison between images and diagrams, relating to computed tomography of the abdomen.

Each chapter focuses on a different region of the human body. The first part of each chapter presents a comprehensive description of the most diffuse imaging techniques relative to the specific area examined, and the second part presents an analysis of some of the most important diseases expressed in these regions and then defines a clinical diagnostic tree in the order of the most suitable techniques. A different structure is utilized in chapters 1, 5 and 17. In the first of these, attention is focused on the basic understanding of all the different imaging techniques, explaining either the physical principles behind them or their relative importance in clinical practice. In chapter 5, the “plain abdomen”, the present use of standard X-ray techniques in the evaluation of abdominal diseases is analysed in detail. Chapter 17 describes major issues in vascular and interventional radiology.

The major quality of this book is its ease of use, being characterized by clear language accompanied by appropriate highly explanatory images. For these reasons this book can be recommended not only to experts in the field and residents in diagnostic imaging as a practical and easily accessible text, but also to medical students as a useful textbook.