This book intends to cover the physical and technical aspects of computed tomography (CT) and is directed to an interdisciplinary readership. As the author states, there is no requirement for special prior knowledge. After a brief historical overview, the author covers the principles of CT, discusses the technical concepts associated with scanner gantry, radiation source and detector systems, and briefly highlights the various modes of operation. He then continues to discuss spiral CT in greater detail, addresses image quality, particularly also in relationship with spiral CT, and dedicates a whole chapter to radiation dose. The next two chapters deal with processing and visualization of images, especially the representation of three-dimensional data sets, and with special CT applications like quantitative CT and imaging of the heart. The last chapter presents an outlook into the future of CT. The appendix, finally, presents a brief development of the convolution/backprojection reconstruction algorithm in two and three dimensions. The book is well written and illustrated. A nice feature is the included CD-ROM, which contains a digital copy of all figures used in the book, additional clinical examples and a sample copy of a dose-calculation program and a volume-CT visualization program. Particularly illustrative are the movie clips showing the process of backprojection. The book represents a nice introduction into the field of CT. A number of areas are treated more in depth, and the selection of these areas reflects mainly the author's own involvement in CT research. It is, therefore, not surprising that more than one third of all references relate to work performed in the author's laboratory, either during his time at Siemens or, more recently, at the Institute of Medical Physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Most examples relating to CT scanners involve the Siemens brand. In the spirit of fairness, one might have expected more citations of work done by other recognized researchers in the field and by other manufacturers of CT scanners. For a student of CT, this book represents a good start. Many issues related to present-day CT are well described and illustrated. For a more in-depth and quantitative review, as might be desired for a person starting to do research work in this area, the references given are a good way to proceed. However, in a number of areas (like corrections for beam hardening, scatter, exponential edge- gradient effect etc) such references are missing. Also, it is doubtful whether the appendix, dedicated to explaining the reconstruction algorithm, goes into sufficient detail to help a student to appreciate the underlying fundamentals of the reconstruction formula. The strength of this book is the consideration of known issues in the context of spiral CT. The author is undoubtedly one of the best-qualified persons to describe these issues for us. For this alone, it is worthwhile to buy the book, which should be mandatory reading for anybody seriously interested in the issues of modern-day CT scanners. Thomas N Hangartner