Imaging Of The Nervous System (clinical Medicine And The Nervous System)

Traditionally, investigation of the nervous system has been primarily a clinical matter. The great era of clinical assessment of patients with neurological disease in the first half of the century was determined by the necessity both to understand the phenomena of neurological disease in relation to structure and function and to localise lesions, in order to facilitate the twin processes of diagnosis and management. Over the years diverse techniques have been applied to clinical practice in order to improve the accuracy of diagnosis. These have comprised extensions of clinical method, for example clinical neuropsychology, electro­ encephalography, radiography of the skull and spine, angiography and other contrast procedures, including the now abandoned technique of air encephalography, and myel­ ography, perhaps itself soon to be little used. Isotope studies of the brain have possibly not realised their full potential in clinical neurology. All these different investigations found an integrated place in clinical management, enhancing the classical clinical database and its associated information, derived from biochemical, immunological and haematological studies. The advent of computerised tomographic X-ray scanning changed all this. The quality of the images derived from CT scanning was so much superior to that obtainable by conventional X-ray methods, and the method was so non-invasive in its conception, that clinical practice in both medical and surgical neurology changed profoundly. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Cerebrovascular Disease....Pages 1-37 Intracranial Tumours....Pages 39-62 Hydrocephalus and Degenerative Cerebral Disease....Pages 63-84 Radiological Aspects of Head and Spinal Trauma....Pages 85-105 Infections of the Central Nervous System....Pages 107-130 Paediatric Neuro-imaging....Pages 131-157 The Spine....Pages 159-200 Imaging the Orbit....Pages 201-218 The Petrous Bone....Pages 219-230 Muscle and the Peripheral Nervous System....Pages 231-239 Isotope Brain Imaging....Pages 241-252 Contrast Media and the Central Nervous System....Pages 253-265 Back Matter....Pages 267-271 This book is designed especially for the resident in one of the clinical neurological specialties; it provides a concise account of the imaging appearances of conditions affecting the neuraxis. The emphasis is mainly on CT and MRI since they reflect current practice, but duplex ultrasound, digital subtraction angiography and the newer radiopharmaceuticals are not neglected. The majority of the chapters are divided along the lines of the various craniospinal pathologies and each chapter is profusely illustrated and extensively referenced