Electron Spin Resonance and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Biology and Medicine and Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems

presented in such detail, except in sales brochures provided by manufacturers, and should be useful for those considering purchase of imaging equipment. Four chapters are devoted to the use of computers in nuclear medicine, with complete descriptions of hardware and software systems which are currently available for computer-assisted acquisition and analysis of nuclear medicine images. Again an appendix lists manufacturers and gives a brief summary of the operating characteristics of each system. Several chapters are devoted to instrumentation which is still in the developmental or very early commercial stages: Tomographic imaging, a concept which has been longer in gestation than perhaps any other imaging process, is treated in depth. Chapters dealing with positron scintigraphy, transmission scanning, profile scanning, and miniature semiconductor detectors (for the detection of beta-emitters in vivo) all provide full descriptions of the physical principles and medical applications of the systems. The chapter on radiopharmaceutical assay is not directed to the working clinician, but seems more appropriate for radiopharmaceutical manufacturers, with its emphasis on absolute assays with scintillation detectors. An exposition on highpressure ionization chambers and the characteristics of commercially available systems would have been more in keeping with the spirit of the rest of the volume. The chapter on cyclotrons seems out of tune also. The final chapter on liquid scintillation counting provides an up-to-date review of advances and a summary of the operating characteristics of commercial systems. The book is highly recommended to all those diverse specialists involved in nuclear medicine, from practicing physician, through physicists, to the technicians operating the equipment.