Diagnostic Imaging
The Veterinary Emergency Referral Center provides a full compliment of diagnostic imaging modalities including digital radiography, color flow Doppler ultrasonography, flexible endoscopy and we have recently added CT and MRI capabilities. All of our images are stored in a DICOM format. DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine and provides a standard for viewing and distributing images irregardless of the source. Storing images in a DICOM format allows several advantages including improved image quality, manipulation of images and when required the images may be sent electronically to other specialist for additional interpretation. Sending images via a digital format allows for a very rapid (usually less than two hours) interpretation time. This extremely fast response time allows us to make important decisions concerning the care of our patients more quickly and with greater precision than conventional methods.
Our CT and MRI studies may be augmented with our new three dimensional viewing system called Helix. Helix allows us to view CT and MRI studies in three dimensions, perform virtual endoscopies and reconstruct/ deconstruct soft tissue and boney structures. Helix also allows us to take a three dimensional structure and rotate it 360 degrees in any direction. Evaluation of structures in a three dimensional format provides a significant advantage when searching for pathological lesions.
Frequently veterinary hospitals will use MRI units with smaller magnet sizes. These smaller units require longer times to complete studies, requiring longer anesthesia, and frequently produce poor image quality. The units we are using have magnets of 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla. These units are highly efficient and provide extremely high quality images.
Please contact Dr. Bordelon or Dr. Goett to discuss referrals for CT or MRI cases.
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