It is a great privilege to introduce this book devoted to the current and future roles in research and clinical practice of another exciting new development in MRI: Diffusi- weighted MR imaging. This new, quick and non-invasive technique, which requires no contrast media or i- izing radiation, offers great potential for the detection and characterization of disease in the body as well as for the assessment of tumour response to therapy. Indeed, whereas DW-MRI is already ? rmly established for the study of the brain, progress in MR techn- ogy has only recently enabled its successful application in the body. Although the main focus of this book is on the role of DW-MRI in patients with malignant tumours, n- oncological emerging applications in other conditions are also discussed. The editors of this volume, Dr. D. M. Koh and Prof. H. Thoeny, are internationally well known for their pioneering work in the ? eld and their original contributions to the l- erature on DW-MRI of the body. I am very much indebted to them for the enthusiasm and engagement with which they prepared and edited this splendid volume in a record short time for our series Medical Radiology - Diagnostic section.
From the reviews:
"For those of you who thought diffusion-weighted MRI was only the realm of the brain, this book may come as a pleasant surprise. ... the book focuses on how the technique is currently being applied to the rest of the body. ... Each chapter has a wealth of example images and figures to demonstrate the points and techniques covered by each author. ... a high quality book with lots of material that will appeal to a wide audience, irrespective of their knowledge of DWI." (Gary Liney, RAD Magazine, December, 2010)
"The reader will note that the bulk of the text deals with DW-MRI in oncology, highlighting the pros and cons of the technique in this field ... . the book represents a breakthrough in this domain of radiology and will help the reader to better understand and focus on all sorts of problems one might encounter using this technique which is fully open to future development and should become a very important adjuvant in patients care." (Giampiero Beluffi, La Radiologia Medica, Vol. 116, 2011)
"For those of you who thought diffusion-weighted MRI was only the realm of the brain, this book may come as a pleasant surprise. ... the book focuses on how the technique is currently being applied to the rest of the body. ... Each chapter has a wealth of example images and figures to demonstrate the points and techniques covered by each author. ... a high quality book with lots of material that will appeal to a wide audience, irrespective of their knowledge of DWI." (Gary Liney, RAD Magazine, December, 2010)
"The reader will note that the bulk of the text deals with DW-MRI in oncology, highlighting the pros and cons of the technique in this field ... . the book represents a breakthrough in this domain of radiology and will help the reader to better understand and focus on all sorts of problems one might encounter using this technique which is fully open to future development and should become a very important adjuvant in patients care." (Giampiero Beluffi, La Radiologia Medica, Vol. 116, 2011)