Mosby's Comprehensive Review for General Sonography Examinations

Justin James Kufalk, RDMS, RVT (Froedtert Hospital)

This review book is a chart-based compilation of medical sonography facts.

The purpose is to prepare students for the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) examinations. Exam preparation is probably the number one concern in the ultrasound world when choosing educational materials.

This book is best used as a supplement to other sources. Students probably will find the mock exams to be the most useful. Beyond that, the general layout of the text is in the form of charts (with few pictorials), which can be difficult to study for long periods of time.

The author intends this for students, but it might be better used in an ultrasound department as a quick reference whenever questions arise.

The book covers a broad range of information relevant to sonography, including anatomy, physiology, and pathology. The main focus is on the use of sonography in obstetrics and gynecology, small parts, and the abdomen. The book's greatest strength is pathology and its most useful features are the mock examinations.

However, many books use this format and this is not an innovative book. The entire book is in the form of charts; there are no paragraphs or even sentences, making it difficult to read an entire section. To detract from its effectiveness even further, illustrations and photos are vastly underutilized.

Much of the time the book settles for explaining in words where an anatomical structure lies rather than using a simple picture.

Although there is quality information in this book, it would be difficult to use it for study. Perhaps the problem is that this is an attempt to provide the information for three different registry exams in one place. It may have accomplished this feat, but at the cost of the natural flow that many other books provide. Having passed a few of the registry exams myself, I would prefer using books that are easy to read, rather than books that throw hundreds of facts at the reader.  Understanding Ultrasound Physics, 3rd edition, by Edelman (ESP Publishing, 2005), is easy to read and covers everything one needs to know in order to pass the physics registry. When it comes to the abdominal registry, I found Textbook of Diagnostic Ultrasonography, 6th edition, by Hagen-Ansert (Elsevier, 2006) to be very helpful. In addition to being an easy read, it provides scads of color illustrations.

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Weighted Numerical Score: 75 - 3 Stars