Even though the techniques of medical imaging are widely available, their interpretation skill relies on the knowledge and ability of the examiner which in turn largely depends on experience.

But how can a student obtain this experience? Partly, this must be with direct patient involvement, but this can be considerably assisted by well-presented museum cases.

This atlas provides such an archive in a readily accessible form and with sufficient clinical details that each case assists in the building of the knowledge base. The case mix has been chosen to represent the prevalent disease pattern. As such, this will not only be a valuable resource for its target audience of local undergraduate and postgraduate students but will also be of inestimable value to post-graduate students of medicine and their tutors in the parts of the world where the conditions shown may be less frequently encountered.

The brief but salient account of the radiological features of the conditions provides a good introduction to each section. The films include many plain radiographs, contrast examinations, computed tomography and a few magnetic resonance imaging scans. In each case the images presented show the abnormality clearly. Some of the studies are less perfect than others but this is the reality of life. Too many books show only perfect cases giving the impression that this is how we should expect to see the cases. In practice the quality of images obtained depends on a large variety of factors including age of equipment, radiographic expertise and the condition of the patient. These cases thus represent the mix of 7images that the student is likely to meet and provide a superb resource which will help to hone the necessary interpretive skills.

Professor Mahmood must be congratulated on having collected such an interesting and useful museum of films and the atlas is testament to his excellent relationships with his radiological colleagues.

As 20% of X-rays are more than 20 years old, they are not of high quality yet have been included to make the compilation complete. Diverse presentations of diseases have been illustrated by multiple X-rays of single diseases. Tuberculosis being a case in point, its high prevalence and multisystem involvement has many X-rays to present a complete spectrum of disease. Salient features of common diseases have been added at the beginning of the chapters for the benefit of students. Detailed description was beyond the scope of this book.

The atlas has been divided into chapters on Pulmonology, Cardiology, Barium Studies, Musculoskeletal System, Abdomen including Intravenous Urographies and lastly CT and MRIs of Brain. In this era of rapid advancement in radiology and imaging, this atlas would be considered more conventional. As undergraduate and postgraduate students of medicine are targeted for readership, I hope it proves valuable. The newer imaging technologies are not covered as this would require a bulkier offering, but have been indicated where of value.