The Radiographer, Issue No. 2 / 2008 (English)

CT Teaching Manual – A Systematic Approach to CT Interpretation. Matthias Hofer (ed.), Thieme Publisher, ISBN 978-1-58890-581-9, $52

The third edition by Matthias Hofer (2007) is a teaching manual on CT, not just a book. This text was first published in German in 1997 and was so well received that it has since been published in English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Italian, Russian, and Polish. The author designed the book to meet the needs of beginners in CT: undergraduates, junior radiographers, and radiology residents.

The book focuses on normal anatomical orientation. Numerous diagrams are shown and labeled with numbers that are listed and explained on the cover flaps. In addition, the most common and significant pathological changes and normal variants have been selected as examples for this study. For undergraduates, the book introduces the subject to its readers, beginning with an atlas section. Even as a beginner, you can systematically examine images of abnormalities and practice differential diagnosis.

For radiographers, it explains which contrast media are appropriate for a specific case, when high-resolution CT is indicated, and what the best injection protocol is when using a pump injector for spiral CT. For radiology residents, the manual includes an atlas with detailed, coded illustrations for each CT image. You can quickly refresh your memory on cross-sectional anatomy and related 3D structures using the features in the images. You can learn the basics of the differential diagnosis of CT morphology, both normal and abnormal. Numerous examples, organized by region or system, illustrate normal variations and abnormalities.

The text’s 224 pages are divided into several sections. The book contains more than 1,000 illustrations and more than 500 CT images. Its didactic style makes this an ideal book for beginners in CT, making the learning process both practical and enjoyable. The book also includes review questions after each section to help reinforce what has been learned. At the end of the book, there is a section dedicated to protocols for 2-row scanners, 6-row scanners, 18-row scanners, 64-row scanners, and dual-source scanners. This is a fantastic section that you’ll hardly find in any other CT book. Since dual-source CT is a relatively new technology, the author has included a few pages to explain the underlying principle of this technology.

With all this valuable information packed into a single book and at a relatively low cost, I highly recommend it to all CT radiographers.