Core Interventional Radiology Review

With the introduction of the new American Board of Radiology (ABR) Core Exam (a 13.5-hour, 2-day marathon) after the 3rd year of radiology residency, many residents are not receiving adequate interventional radiology (IR) exposure prior to the exam. The results of the recent Core Exam reflect this as IR again ranked lowest in mean national scores across all imaging modalities, similar to 2013. We decided that innovative teaching methods must be employed to improve radiology resident’s performance on the IR section of the ABR initial qualifying exam.

This self-assessment book, which is a compilation of the weekly e-mail questions that we send to our residents, covers a broad range of interventional radiology topics; however, this book is not a complete review of the field of interventional radiology. Our goal is to help you identify areas where your knowledge is lacking so that you can spend your study time wisely.

These self-assessment questions are designed to illustrate the clinical aspects of interventional radiology emphasizing the indications for, options to, and complications of interventional radiology procedures. Other than the some very basic technical information, the technical details of interventional radiology procedures will remain the domain of interventional radiology texts, as that material is unlikely to be on the ABR Core Exam.

Core Interventional Radiology Review: Self-assessment questions, 1st Edition, is divided into 2 volumes covering basic concepts, arterial and venous diseases, TIPs and trauma, catheters, stents and embolic devices, the peritoneum and pleura, interventional oncology, and other topics. Each volume contains more than 100 images or diagrams in over 200 pages to aide the resident’s grasp of interventional radiology concepts.