Recent Advances in Ultrasound Diagnosis Asim Kurjak, Editor, International Congress Series, Excerpta Medica, P.O. Box 1126, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. $52.25 (American dollars 329 pages.

This book presents the proceedings of the International Symposium on Recent Advan- ces in Ultrasound Diagnosis held at Dubrovnik, 10-15 October 1977. The major sections covered in the book include new technical developments, new clinical applications, gynecolo- gy, obstetrics, neurology, cardiology, breast, and pancreas. Dr. Donald leads off with a presentation of the scope and limitations of newer ultrasonic techniques. There is a predo- minance of authors from Europe and Japan with a sprinkling of authors from Australia and the United States: Most of the papers are quite well done. Most illustrations are fairly good and reproduced’well, especially the scans. However, some of the diagrams do not have the same clarity of reproduction.

Like all books which are a compilation of papers presented at a symposium, some arti- cles are excellent and some are not of the same caliber. Indexing is limited which makes it hard for the individual interested in only one subject area to find all of the material on that subject. It is very important in a compilation of this type to have good indexing since most readers are not interested in all aspects of ultrasound. The fact that the articles are grouped in sections, as previously noted, is of some help. The other problem with a collection of papers from a meeting is that the material may not represent the current state of the art. However, in this case publication date was July 6,1978, and the meeting date was October, 1977. The book is particularly recommended for those who want a better idea of what is being done around the world and in determining how various investigators around the world have approached the problem of improving the techniques and equipment used in diagnostic ultrasound.

Joseph H. Holmes, M.D. Department of Radiology

University of Colorado Medical Center Denver, Colorado 80262

Quality Control in Nuclear Medicine Buck A. Rhodes, C.V. Mosby Company, St. Louis, 1977. $39.50

There has been some diffficulty in reviewing this book but the editor felt it should be brought to the attention of the readers and thus reviewed it himself.

The book is an outgrowth of papers presented in a meeting at the National Bureau of Standards in June of 1975. As nuclear medicine is more widely applied, tools used in nuclear medicine, such as system analysis, information technology, and evaluative research become essential. The importance of disseminating the means of research in quality control technology can perhaps be best appreciated by recognizing the increasing social constraints on resource allocation in health care. As the editor himself says, quality of patient care is often greatly dependent on the quality of performance of nuclear diagnostic systems.

An outstanding group of contributors have presented the material included in this volume. Like all compilations of papers the caliber of the papers varies. Since most people do not want to cover all aspects of the field, a good index becomes important. In this parti- cular book, the index is quite good. Hence, a reader can find readily material in which he is most interested.

The format of presentation is good. Diagrams and pictures are excellent. One would say that the overview chapter written by the editor is excellent and well worth reading for everyone. Some of the appendices are also quite good.

Although somewhat out of date, this book is one of the better compilations of data presented at a meeting.

Joseph Holmes, M.D. Professor of Radiology and Medicine

University of Colorado Medical Center Denver, Colorado 80262

JOURNAL O F CLINICAL ULTRASOUND 358