Preface

Right from my first year in secondary school (or high school), I was interested in photography and promptly joined the photography club; I must confess that I almost “confiscated” the keys to the school’s dark room but kept it safely for other students who were interested in making use of the facilities there for development and printing of their photographic films. This was in the early 1970s in Nigeria, and the only photography experience was developing and printing in black and white.

For a medical student with an interest in photography, the interest shifted to Polaroid photographs that offered color photographs. In the latter half of the 1970s, the practice was to send Kodak or Agfa 24 or 36 roll color films to London for development and printing. Then came the long wait to receive by post both the finished product and the exposed film(s) in Lagos. It was only then that I could have the pleasure of experiencing the disappointment of seeing and scrutinizing the good or poor photographs, a representation of the good or poor quality of work I did in the first place.

It was in the clinical years in the medical school that I realized that I had not escaped black and white photography. Radiographs proved that. Radiology and the radiographs, part of medical imaging, have played a prominent role in the practice of medicine for doctors of first contact like me. Radiographs, which radiology offers doctors in various specialties, play an important role in most practices in low- and middle-income countries (including the least developed countries [LDCs]); this is despite advances in radio-diagnostics and medical imaging on the global scene.

Getting it right with radiographs is not the same as getting it right when looking at black and white or color photographs. Apart from the fact that the latter could be for fun, the former frequently has dire consequences when the person who “looks” at radiographs does not pay close attention to details or apply the fundamentals in determining the relevance of the findings. The physician must separate themselves from the ease and enjoyment of regular photographs when “examining” a radiograph for details to aid in arriving at a correct diagnosis. It is not always that scarce radiologists are available to provide us with a specialist’s opinion.

This book has a good mix of images obtained from the advanced medical imaging techniques in the appropriate numbers and Chapters. They make the book balanced as they keep doctors who practice in resource-poor countries abreast with these rapidly growing means of diagnosis and treatment, while concomitantly taking those who practice in advanced practice settings back to their roots to maintain currency rather than lose skills; this way, everyone maintains a balance. My conviction in proceeding to actualize this dream is that if some medical students and doctors are like me, this small book may be of some value to them and to their patients.