Reddit reviews Duke Review of MRI Principles: Case Review Series

Well, it depends on how hard you are willing to work,

Lazy and just want to kinda get used to terminology:
Learning Radiology by Herring

Willing to put in 2-3 hours every day during the rotation which by the way is entirely feasible since med students definitely aren't doing more than 40 hours a week, most do like 30 during a rads rotation. Use Core Radiology

Difficultish: Brant and helms, the harrisons of radiology. But unlike harrisons where legit everything is covered, if you really want to learn radiology you have to get subspecialty specific textbooks like the requisities series. That said, this is what I used back in the day during med school and I definitely don't regret it. I've read through core radiology as well, they are kinda similar in content, but B&H is a bit more formal and teaches radiologist principles better. If you are going into radiology, this is the textbook to buy since you'll probably use it in residency during PGY-2.

And in general, you are never going to read the entire textbooks during med school, but for IM or EM docs, Core could be super useful even though it will be beyond them for certain topics.

For physics, this is my favorite book by far. It can be a bit dense, and some in my opinion more ignorant radiologists who dislike extensive physics don't like it as much, but I learned during training physics makes the radiologist. Even among radiologists, too many doctors make basic physics mistakes that lead to misdiagnosis, especially with things like nuclear imaging. I frequently overread cardiologist and GI nuc imaging and am kind of appaled by the complete lack of basic radiation understanding. That said...

Here are the amazon links, you can probably find pdfs to some of the books and those that aren't you can probably find in your hospital library.

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Radiology-Recognizing-Basics-3e/dp/0323328075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500633396&sr=8-1&keywords=radiology

https://www.amazon.com/Core-Radiology-Approach-Diagnostic-Imaging/dp/1107679680/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1500633396&sr=8-2&keywords=radiology

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Diagnostic-Radiology-Set-Brant/dp/1608319121/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500633979&sr=1-1&keywords=brant+and+helms

Specifically for MRI:
https://www.amazon.com/Duke-Review-MRI-Principles-Case/dp/1455700843/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500633869&sr=1-1&keywords=duke+MRI

^Great book for the basics of MRI artifacts and connects visual artifacts to the physics, although learning how to differentiate between artifact and pathology is going to take a residency ;). Also, make sure to get the online version because the paper edition is shit quality.

Yea, so all in all, everyone can find a book that will satisfy their level of interest in radiology, and of course, you get out what you put in. You put in a lot of time in the rotation, that is your decision and I think it was worth it. I learned more of my physics principles during my rotation(although it helped I was an engineer) than residency, so when it came time to take physics CORE, I didn't have to study. Physics CORE is basically the step 1 of radiology, the exam can be hard as shit, and unlike step 1, there is no UFAP or UWORLD lol.

Radiology textbook can be obscure in that they often don't explicitly mention physics principles, so if you don't them, you can't truly appreciate a textbook in my opinion, and how I studied radiology basically was I always had four textbooks open at any given time.

Robbins for pathophysiology, Whatever radiology textbook I was using, a copy of Netters, and maybe an embryology review book if I felt it was necessary. Never steered me wrong, radiology and anatomy textbooks open at all times are especially important, but try to keep the anatomy book and pathophys book closed while "interpreting" the textbook, only to re-correlated after you have thought about it and read a section to get a second more in depth look.

Costantly reminding yourself of principles is important and often missed. I am sure all of you know radiology is one of the most basic science heavy specialties, so reviewing your basic sciences, even well beyond medical school, makes for a fantastic radiologist.

However be careful not to get attached to any given textbook as well, you can't exactly have netters and robbins with you in the reading room.