Book excerpt: Authored by a leading educator, this book teaches the fundamental mathematics and physics concepts associated with medical imaging systems. Going beyond mere description of imaging modalities, this book delves into the mechanisms of image formation and image quality common to all imaging systems: contrast mechanisms, noise, and spatial and temporal resolution, making it an important reference for medical physicists and biomedical engineering students. This is an extensively revised new edition of The Physics of Medical X-Ray Imaging by Bruce Hasegawa (Medical Physics Publishing, 1991), and includes a wide range of modalities such as X-ray CT, MRI and SPECT.