Books review

Excerpt

The book edited by Professors Restrepo and Bardo covers an important and highly debated topic in today’s medicine: the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, high-prevalence morbid conditions asking for a thorough, elaborate and accurate diagnostic workup and for a clear interpretation and analysis. The essential target audience is represented by medical residents, the book being structured in a most comprehensive manner, clinically oriented presentation of representative cases, with a short introduction (“Clinical Presentation”) located on the right-sided pages, followed on the successive left-sided page, by explanatory legends, “Differential Diagnosis”, presentation of “Essential Facts”, of “Other Imaging Findings” and not least, of valuable “Pearls and Pitfalls”. The reader’s attention is focused first on the salient features of each case, consisting of a synthetic presentation which includes a short text and related images (the “Clinical Presentation” section). After elaborating his/her own diagnosis, the reader may check the diagnosis and find additional details on the next page, where figures are explained and described. Following in a logical manner, the “Differential Diagnosis” section presents all the possible morbid conditions, of which, however, the first listed, represents the correct one. The “Essential Facts” section provides the reader with valuable, updated and practical notions. The “Other Imaging Findings” section orients the reader toward further details and/or alternative diagnostic imaging techniques. The “Pearls and Pitfalls” section completes the picture with clinically relevant and useful indications while also underlining the limits of some diagnostic techniques. …