Edward Y. Lee - Pediatric Body MRI: A Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary Guide

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Ever since its first development approximately four decades ago, MR imaging has undergone rapid growth and technological advancement in screening, diagnosis, and follow-up assessment of various medical disorders. Particularly in recent years, the advancement to 3T and 7T magnets combined with many newer and faster MR imaging sequences and multichannel coils with parallel imaging capabilities has substantially improved the quality of MR imaging and allowed 3D imaging while reducing imaging acquisition time. In addition, due to its many advantages, including lack of harmful ionizing radiation, superb soft tissue characterization, and capacity to obtain functional information, MR imaging is currently being increasingly utilized as an integral component of noninvasive imaging assessment in many clinical circumstances in the pediatric population. Therefore, a clear understanding of pediatric MR imaging techniques and characteristic MR imaging findings of various pediatric disorders is essential for practicing pediatric and general radiologists, who encounter pediatric patients in their clinical practice to ensure optimal pediatric patient care.

The initial idea of this book arose from trainees, pediatric radiologists, general radiologists, and various specialists whom I have encountered as a pediatric radiologist at Boston Childrens Hospital, chair of the pediatric radiology section of the Core Examination for radiology residents and Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) Committee for practicing pediatric radiologists at the American Board of Radiology (ABR), and visiting professor to more than 50 different countries around the world for the past 15 years. Everyone from these groups was looking for an up-to-date single volume practical resource for learning and reviewing the fundamentals and essentials of pediatric body MR imaging. However, there was no such book currently available. From this came my desire to write a pediatric body MR imaging textbook.

This book is organized into 17 main chapters based on organ systems in addition to a last chapter dedicated to whole body MR imaging. The organization and presentation of this book are structured to provide accessibility to both common and less common but clinically important pediatric body disorders that can be currently evaluated with MR imaging. Each chapter included in this book is designed to provide up-to-date information on current as well as emerging MR imaging techniques and outline methods to specifically tailor MR imaging for each individual pediatric patient. Practical strategies including pre-imaging pediatric patient preparation are highlighted. Developmental embryology, normal anatomy and variants, and characteristic MR imaging findings are reviewed. In addition, the discussion of each disorder includes the clinical features, characteristic MR imaging findings, and up-to-date management information in some selected cases. Given its focus on disorders affecting the pediatric population, we have emphasized how to differentiate between normal variants and abnormal pathology and how to determine whether certain MR imaging findings are related to age or a genetic or malformation syndrome. Furthermore, current information on optimizing performance, analysis, and interpretation of MR imaging is highlighted along with practical tips on navigating technical and interpretative pitfalls that occur in pediatric body MR imaging.