Borut Marincek - Böcker

There have been remarkable achievements in CT technology, workflow management and applications in the last couple of years. The introduction of 4- and 16-row multidetector technology has substantially increased acquisition speed and provides nearly isotropic resolution. These new technical possibilities had significant impact on the clinical use of CT and have yielded a broadening of the spectrum of applications, particularly in vascular, cardiac, abdominal, and trauma imaging. This book presents the practical experience of an international expert group of radiologists and physicists with state-of-the-art multidetector technology. The chapters in this book will facilitate a thorough understanding of 4- and 16-slice multidetector-row CT and its clinical applications. This will help to fully exploit the diagnostic potential of this technology.

Why write a book on emergency radiology? In many coun- decline. There is an increasing trend towards the use of tries, hospital emergency departments have become a MDCT to evaluate traumatic injuries and non-traumatic major part of the healthcare safety net. In the last decade emergencies. The use of workstations for reporting and for economically-driven structural changes in health care further image reconstruction becomes standard practice. delivery have caused a dramatic increase in emergency On the occasion of the European Congress of Radiology department visits. In response to capacity and staffing (ECR) 2003 and 2004 a Categorical Course on “Emergency pressures, hospitals are developing and implementing a Radiology”has been organized to assess current devel- variety of strategies designed to improve patient flow and ments and concepts in this rapidly growing field. reduce overcrowding in the emergency department. Numerous radiologists,all outstanding and international- Several factors are considered critical for success, such as ly renowned experts in their field,have made superb c- having the right multidisciplinary teams in place and opti- tributions in an ECR syllabus. These authors have now mizing the use of imaging tests. For a critical care physi- made a second effort and updated their contributions for cian it is paramount to obtain the images quickly and for this book. The chapters in the book mirror the topics p- them to be interpreted accurately. sented in the ECR course, encompassing imaging ap- To accomplish this, the emergency radiology division proaches as well as interventional aspects.

It is with great pleasure that we present this completely revised English e- tion of our book How Does MRI Work? An Introduction to the Physics and Function of Magnetic Resonance Imaging only two years afer publication of the frst English edition. We are particularly pleased that our introductory textbook met with great approval in the English-speaking world and not just in the German-speaking countries. Tis success has been an enormous - centive for us to further improve and update the text. For this reason, we are now presenting a second edition. All chapters have been thoroughly revised and updated to include the latest developments in the ever-changing feld of MRI technology. In particular, the chapter on cardiovascular imaging has been improved and expanded. We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Daniel Nanz, PhD, the author of this chapter. Moreover, two completely new chapters have been added: “Fat Suppression Techniques” and “High- Field Clinical MR Imaging”. Notwithstanding these additions, the intended readership of our book remains the same: it is not a book for MR specialists or MR physicists but for our students, residents, and technologists, in short, all those who are interested in MRI and are looking for an easy-to-understand introduction to the technical basis of this imaging modality at the beginning of their MRI training. Te second English edition presented here corresponds to and appears together with the completely revised ffh German edition.

Why write a book on emergency radiology? In many coun- decline. There is an increasing trend towards the use of tries, hospital emergency departments have become a MDCT to evaluate traumatic injuries and non-traumatic major part of the healthcare safety net. In the last decade emergencies. The use of workstations for reporting and for economically-driven structural changes in health care further image reconstruction becomes standard practice. delivery have caused a dramatic increase in emergency On the occasion of the European Congress of Radiology department visits. In response to capacity and staffing (ECR) 2003 and 2004 a Categorical Course on “Emergency pressures, hospitals are developing and implementing a Radiology”has been organized to assess current devel- variety of strategies designed to improve patient flow and ments and concepts in this rapidly growing field. reduce overcrowding in the emergency department. Numerous radiologists,all outstanding and international- Several factors are considered critical for success, such as ly renowned experts in their field,have made superb c- having the right multidisciplinary teams in place and opti- tributions in an ECR syllabus. These authors have now mizing the use of imaging tests. For a critical care physi- made a second effort and updated their contributions for cian it is paramount to obtain the images quickly and for this book. The chapters in the book mirror the topics p- them to be interpreted accurately. sented in the ECR course, encompassing imaging ap- To accomplish this, the emergency radiology division proaches as well as interventional aspects.