Pediatric Nuclear Medicine

This book comes at a good time. The differentiation of pediatric nuclear medicine from the general practice of nuclear medicine has developed over the past 15 years and is now a reality. Dr. Treves has been one of a small band of pediatric specialists who have made this happen. He recounts the reasons for this in his introduction-the development of technetium-99m- labeled radiopharmaceuticals making possible the use of these procedures in nonmalignant diseases, the appreciation that infants and children require special techniques and adapted technology, the availability of computer methods for handling the dynamic data of pediatric cardiology and urology, and the difference in the spectrum of disease seen in the pediatric versus the adult nuclear medicine clinic. The book is a compendium of a single-person's experience, rather than the amalgam generally found in a multiauthored work. In a sense this is atavistic, but it provides the old-fashioned comfort of a coherent and per- sonal approach. Its success is due largely to Dr. Treves' broad experience and his special talent for describing each test in relation to this experience. It is probably aided by the relatively recent emergence of pediatric nuclear medicine as a special activity and follows in the footsteps of other volumes on the pediatric subspecialties that have taken off from general adult prac- tice in the past.