This Atlas of Abdominal Ultrasonography in Children is an excellent compilation of representative examples of abdominal ultrasonic images of childhood diseases. The atlas is organized into six chapters, with 109 figures composed of approximately 263 sonographic, 58 radionuclide scintiscan, 30 radiographic, and eight clinical and pathologic photographic pictures. The radiodiagnostic methods (scintigraphy and radiography) were corroborative and complimentary to ultrasonography. The quality of the sonograms, scintiscans, radiographs, and photographs is excellent. The sonograms are presented as black echos on a white background, hard-copy format.
Ultrasound is especially useful in pediatrics because it does not use ionizing radiation and because of its exopenetrant ("noninvasive") nature. The author uses the term noninvasive, which has been widely applied to ultrasound techniques despite the fact that sound waves are invasive or penetrant of tissues although apparently not injurious to them. To be effective in producing images, the sound waves must penetrate or invade tissues.