Cholescintigraphy (Developments in Nuclear Medicine)

This book is timely and fills a void in the area of cholescintigraphy in Nuclear Medicine. It is true that many articles and papers from symposia on this subject are available but they are all scattered through a volumnous literature. Dr Cox and his colleagues have brought together in an orderly fashion the current available material on hepatobiliary scintigraphy in an excellent volume suitable for both the clinician as well as the clinical scientist. This volume begins with a detailed discussion of anatomy and physiological functions of the liver and bi liary tract followed by a section on scintigraphic functional imaging of the liver. A description of the chemistry and pharma­ 99m ceutical considerations of Tc labeled hepatobiliary agents, especially those of Ida-derivatives is included. Next the text follows the usual pattern of discussion on the pharmacodynamics of radiopharmaceuticals, followed by a description of various clinical disease patterns of the liver and the use of cholescintigraphy in evaluating these diseases. The last sections deal with computer applications in quantitation of liver function followed by a discussion 99m of the clinical role for Tc labeled hepatobiliary agents in comparison to ultrasonography, CT, radiography and in vitro laboratory tests. One notable feature of this book is its discussion on the evaluation of new agents in normal experimental animals and in animals with induced liver disease, correlating this data to define the best radiopharmaceutical and then evaluating the same in patients. This type of methodological treatment of the subject matter is commendable.