Recommended Books for Radiology Residents

[This updated/revised article was originally published way back on December 21, 2013]

There are lots and lots of radiology books out there.

Rather than list oodles of options, I’ve made a short editorial selection for each section. There are obviously many good books, but your book fund is probably not infinite and you need to start somewhere.

First-year residents, in addition to Brant and Helms Core Radiology, might start with these recommendations prior to buying any additional texts that they are unlikely to read at length during their first exposure to each section.

General / introductory / review

  • Core Radiology is, I believe, a better foundational book than B&H (definitely more digestible) and a nice review at the beginning of / prior to intense board review. Detailed review is available here.
  • Crack the Core (Vol 1 & Vol 2 & “War Machine”), the self-published “First Aid” for the CORE exam. Written by the pseudonymous “Prometheus Lionhart, MD,” these self-published volumes are generally loved for their conversational tone, high-yield approach, and lack of competition. Innumerable typos have continued to slowly improve over the years, but these are still walls of text without enough pictures, so you’ll have to find your images elsewhere, perhaps with his Case Companion.
  • Aunt Minnie’s Atlas and Imaging-Specific Diagnosis
  • Top 3 Differentials in Radiology
  • Search Pattern is an interesting little book. It’s a cheap, practical, bullet-point list of how to actually approach different exam types (e.g. a search pattern for an MRI IAC or a CT soft tissue neck). This is the kind of resource that can be helpful to have at the workstation on rotation to help you approach new exam types and keep an eye out for things to look for.

Body

  • Fundamentals of Body CT is similar in content to the chapters in B&H, but it’s easier to carry around and more concisely/clearly written.
  • For MR, Siegelman’s Body MRI covers everything, including breast, but is unfortunately getting out of date. CT and MRI of the Whole Body is more up-to-date if there’s a copy you have access to (it’s too expensive to buy). Fundamentals of Body MRI would be a cheaper alternative if looking for a dedicated text.

Chest

Fluoroscopy

Genitourinary

MSK

Neuroradiology

Nuclear medicine

Ultrasound

IR

ER

Cardiac

Pediatrics

Mammo

Physics

Anatomical Atlases

Cases

  • A Core Review is generally the newest/best casebook series (overall mostly supplanting Case Review Series and RadCases). The question format is most-tuned for the Core, with all subjects now available. All of them have integrated physics. Breast is based on the BIRADS 4 and needs to be updated.
  • Between the more established Case Review Series and Radcases, I believe RadCases is generally superior. There are more entries in the Case Review series, however, so it’s not possible to do RadCases exclusively if you want a case review in every subfield.

45 Comments

MIchael Applebaum 05.10.14 Reply

Ben,

Great website man. I found this by using google alone. We have come a long way since Camp Sabra. I am finishing my prelim med year and moving on to Rads in July! Hope to hear from you soon.

Ben 05.10.14 Reply

Michael,

Been a long time! That’s awesome. Hope you’re enjoying that last little bit of clinical medicine before the big switch. Let me know if I can help out anytime.

Canadian junior 05.04.16 Reply

Hi, I’m a junior radiology resident from Canada. This is an incredible, practical website. It offers such great advice that I feel like you’re my senior resident. Thanks so much for helping sift through such an overwhelming abundance of resources, and helping me focus what little energy/time/money I have. Do you have any advice for actually how to study, memorize, or review knowledge over the course of multiple years of residency? Any advice, as well, on review courses, conferences, research, and/or fellowships?

Ben 05.04.16 Reply

Thanks! You’ve touched on some topics that I need to cover. I’m taking the Core exam in a month and have a series of posts forthcoming about Core review, question banks, other materials, etc. I hope to circle back and touch on some of these other topics around the same time. There’s always a tension between giving specific advice (that doesn’t generalize well across different programs) and broad advice (that can sometimes be almost meaningless), but I do think there’s some space there to be helpful.

My super brief teaser answer is that when starting out, it’s helpful to split your pursuit of knowledge into anatomy and common path/aunt minnies. It’s actually very easy to go through radiology looking for abnormalities and doing decent job without really hammering down on the anatomy. As you advance though, lack of anatomy knowledge becomes a bigger and bigger problem (especially as you need to be better than the surgeons looking at their scans if you want to add value). So taking time to really learn anatomy is important. And it’s something you’re going to have to do and redo over and over again until it sticks, then refresh on again every so often. Then I personally want to know the things I’ll see routinely (which are in books but also come with daily service work) and the things that are silly but are pathognomonic (Aunt Minnies). Top 3 and Aunt Minnie’s atlases are great for this highest-yield case review and don’t take too long to go through for each rotation, allowing you to at least have heard of/seen some of these, giving you a foundation for when you see it again in conference etc.

Other than AIRP, I’ve never been to a review course (and no one from my program does either), so I have no special insight into which of the many (Duke, Huda, etc) are best.

Check back in the next couple months!

Hector Andres 05.09.16 Reply

Hi, I’m going to start my radiology resident next month, excellent website, incredibly useful, thanks a lot !!!

Ben 05.14.16 Reply

Thanks/welcome!

Daniel Smith 05.27.16 Reply

I feel like the anatomy topic you are touching is particularly significant, since -as my attending always says- 90% of radiologists don’t have a deep foundation in anatomy. Do you have any recommendations concerning anatomy resources?
The other thing, which I believe is generally underestimated, is the “you gotta add value over the surgeons” statement. The real difficulty in radiology doesn’t come from knowing every pathology, it comes in my opinion from having to understand every specialty as if you were an expert in it, so you can really guide the clinician towards a better decision: The presence or absence of an A. thyroidea ima, the course of the hepatic artery, the state of the mesorectal fascia.
You can probably be a “good” radiologist if you train your eye to see every pathology, but you can never be a great radiologist without understanding the clinical implications of your findings and without really knowing your patients’ history.
Besides that, kudos as always for the recommendations, I think you are the premier resource on this topic net-wide and have been for some time and I have never gotten a bad tip from you. I believe we all hope for more recommended reading from your pen! If I had one request, it’d probably be that you touch upon the online resources that exist, starting from radiopaedia, to RadPrimer, R-ITI and upon mobile apps.
I think that we are headed directly into an era where these resources are going to become more and more significant to learning radiology and the earlier we understand how to use them, the better.

Greetings!

Ben 05.27.16 Reply

e-Anatomy is the most robust resource out there, though it’s pricey. Ultimately, as anatomy is foundation of everything we do, it’s probably worth it. I like Fleckenstein’s, but at this point a static book atlas in 2016 is pretty antiquated. HeadNeckBrainSpine is good for resident-level neuroanatomy but certainly not enough for the subspecialist. The Stanford MSK MRI anatomy is better than nothing but generally insufficient. Nothing else great online for the other body parts, StatDx anatomy is okay-ish but I don’t love it.

Thanks for the idea, I’ll make an update with the online stuff soon, that’s definitely what people are most likely to use on a daily basis. There will be a lot more radiology posts this summer/fall.

Daniel Smith 06.22.16 Reply

What’s your opinion on the “Diagnostic Imaging” Series (Amirsys)? The idea seems enticing (bullets, high yield etc.) but they are bloody expensive…
The content is the same as StatDX of course, but I find it impossible to use StatDX, every time I tried ended with me nearly throwing the computer out the window.

Ben 06.23.16 Reply

They’re nice quality books, really good printing and image quality. StatDX has more pictures overall, otherwise content is analogous (though the books by their nature are organized for both reading and reference, whereas StatDX is more of a reference tool). Still, I’m not convinced they’re worth the money. Our department has a bunch in its library, which helps if one is interested, but I’d only actually buy a particular volume or two up if I had a strong focused interest and a large book fund to burn.

Abdullah 06.26.16 Reply

Hi,
I have a few queries..
1.)
I currently have Grainger and Allison, Mayo GI series, MSK MRI by Helm, Fundamentals of MSK by Helms.
I would like to know if it is worth buying Abdominal imaging by Sahani (I like the way it is put up). Will it be a good buy. And regarding MSK, is the book by Pope a good alternate to Greenspan or requisites? Please advice as there are not much reviews on these two books

2.) For case review, Is radprimer/ Qevlar an alternate or adjunct to Case review series/ rad cases?

Ben 06.27.16 Reply

1) Haven’t read Sahani or seen the book in person. The Amazon preview looks nice. There are only so many $300+ books a person can have (0? 1?). It wouldn’t be necessary as a resident but looks like a nice reference. Pope is a lot longer and more readable than Requisites. The main benefit of Requisites MSK is that it covers the basics for a good price, otherwise it’s not that special.

2) Radprimer can be an alternate (7000 questions is a lot). I would say Qevlar is an adjunct. It’s much less complete and most useful as a final push during dedicated Core review to hit some high points and give yourself a bolus of Core-style questions.

Abdullah 06.27.16

Thanks for your opinion.
Keep writing, I enjoy reading your posts.

The Dr. Omar 11.22.16 Reply

Benjamin,
When am I going to get to post my oped????

Ben 11.22.16 Reply

Never. Just never.

The Dr. Omar 11.22.16 Reply

Coming soon: The Omar Corner; stay tuned

Ben 11.22.16 Reply

0.0% chance my friend.

JSkweres 11.30.16 Reply

Excited about the new upcoming Omar Corner. Ben, any updates on when it will post?

Ben 11.30.16 Reply

I can’t believe he’s recruited you to his impossible dream.

JHumm 12.02.16 Reply

The Omar corner is likely to yield a lot of extra traffic. I hope your server can handle it.

Looking forward to it as are many others I’m sure.

Ben 12.02.16 Reply

You know he hasn’t and won’t ever actually write an Omar Corner article anyway :)

EZ 12.13.16 Reply

I’m offended at your obstructionist attitude. Give the people what they want, clamoring in the streets! “Omar, Omar, Omar…”

Ben 12.13.16 Reply

Maybe you’re right…

andy 01.05.17 Reply

a group of us residents were at dinner last night. Somehow the topic of your website came up. We had noticed there is a lot of support for the Omar corner…any update on when this miracle of literature may appear? fans are eagerly awaiting.

Ben 01.06.17 Reply

I’m still awaiting the submission to see the magic.

B 04.08.17 Reply

Hi Ben, thanks for sharing this wonderful post! I’m a radiology resident in Australia and I would love to see a post about your recommended daily study strategy (not necessarily study targeted to a particular exam but to be a competent radiologist), as well as your thoughts on the future of AI in radiology.

Ben 04.08.17 Reply

Thanks! I need to write both of those, thanks for the suggestions.

Abisoye 05.12.17 Reply

Hello,
Pls which is a better atlas weir or fleckemateins.
Also which is better grainger and Allison or brant and helms

Abisoye 05.13.17 Reply

Pls which is a better atlas for a radiology resident weir or fleckenstein
Thank you , they both have new editions now thanks

Ben 08.04.17 Reply

I haven’t seen either new edition. I liked Fleckenstein’s better previously, but I think e-anatomy is more usable these days.

Sam 08.04.17 Reply

Hi Ben,

This is Sam. Any news on the Omar Corner addition to your website? Its been a while since we heard any news.

Ben 08.04.17 Reply

Still waiting to experience the majesty

Bii 12.13.17 Reply

Good evening pls can you do a review on Grainger and allisons diagnostic radiology vol 1&2
Sutton vol 1 and 2
Danhert

Ben 12.15.17 Reply

Probably not in the short term

Shubham Singhal 05.01.20 Reply

Hello Dr. Ben Whiite,
Thank you for making such a useful informative post for radiology residents and fellows.
I request you to mention some websites/softwares which provide anonymised stacked DICOM images for interpretation in quiz format so that we can test ourselves.
Thank you.
Regards
Dr. Shubham Singhal
India.

Ben 05.01.20 Reply

I don’t think there are any free ones that have stacks that I can think of. Two options that cost money are MRI online and CaseStacks.

Shubham Singhal 05.06.20

Thank you for the response. I will surely check them out. I got to know about MRI online from your post only. I was using it previously and I found out to be really helpful.
I would like to add one website I found out recently which helps in learning radiology reporting.
https://academy.telemedicineclinic.com/

I have just gone through the free trial modules on this website. They look promising, however they are a bit limited in number of cases and their variety. Just sharing here for good of everyone.
Thank you.

James 02.11.21 Reply

Hello Dr. White!
Was wondering if you had a preference of case books for a R1/R2 resident (Not necessarily specifically for Core)? Is A Core Review your pick still or is something like RadCases/Case Review more oriented to learning from the beginning? Trying to find ways to make the information stick, and figured casebooks might help for complicated subjects like Neuro!

Thanks!

Ben 02.11.21 Reply

They’re all fine, though I personally also felt that the style of CRS was my least favorite of the three overall. That said, the quality of all these series across the board is heterogeneous and changes by section. For cases earliest on, I would consider Aunt Minnie’s Atlas and Top 3 Differentials to be good first-pass books (to be supplemented with dedicated subjects after).

Omar's Mom 03.13.23 Reply

We went Omar!

Omar's Dad 03.13.23 Reply

and now we want Omar!

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