Weir & Abrahams’ Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy 5th Edition

Book Preface

There is increasing importance placed on the interpretation of radiological anatomy in a world that has seen considerable changes in medical student training programmes over the last decade, in particular the reduction in cadaver dissection and didactic anatomical teaching.
We have updated and revised this atlas, by the addition of new images and techniques, to reflect these trends. The ‘author’ team has also changed to reflect the world-wide expertise that this atlas requires. Professor Marios Loukas from St George’s University, Grenada, and Dr. Tom Turmezei from Cambridge, UK, have brought their own extensive knowledge of radiological anatomy to enhance this new addition.

The general format for this fifth edition remains the same, but the layout of the chapters on the brain and the head and neck have been altered to reflect the increased resolution and the greater flexibility of anatomical demonstration offered by newer techniques.* We have retained approximately 20% of the images from the last edition, mainly those that show basic anatomy by older methods, for example radiography, lymphography and some angiography. Further anatomical images and video run-throughs are also available to view on the web as well as 34 tutorials that will provide a comprehensive review of radiological pathology. These tutorials are based on nine ‘concepts’, as follows:

1. ‘things pushed’
2. ‘things pulled’
3. ‘things added’
4. ‘things missing’
5. ‘things larger than normal’
6. ‘things smaller than normal’
7. ‘things that have an abnormal structure, either locally or diffusely’
8. ‘things that have an abnormal shape, either locally or generally’ and
9. ‘things you cannot see despite knowing they are present pathologically, that is, you are either using the wrong imaging technique or you will never see any abnormality because the disease is only microscopic and has not induced any visible anatomical (or physiological) change’.

Further explanations together with numerous case examples to demonstrate these ‘concepts’ are also on the website. We believe the ongoing reliance placed by clinicians on the imaging of pathological processes will be facilitated by this novel and exciting approach, and the addition of pathology combined with this extensively revised radiological anatomy text will enhance the understanding of imaging to the benefit of you, the reader, and your patients.
Jamie Weir, Peter Abrahams, Jonathan Spratt, Lonie Salkowski, Marios Loukas and Tom Turmezei
January 2017