Why Should I Bring my Pet to Cedar Grove for a CT Scan?
Cedar Grove is one of Northern Ireland's leading small animal referral centres. Our hospital is led by a highly skilled and experienced team who are committed to providing the highest standards of veterinary care. Cedar Grove has some of the most advanced imaging and scanning equipment available in veterinary facilities in Ireland, this combined with an imaging department staffed by a highly experienced team of vets and nurses, makes for an unsurpassed diagnostic imaging service. The facility and the staff are available 24 hours a day, every day of the year in order to provide the best levels of patient and client care possible.
What is a CT (Computed Tomography) Scan?
CT is a diagnostic tool used to look at various parts of the body, especially those made of bone (including joints), air (including lungs and the nose), and soft tissue structures- particularly those with a blood supply. It uses X-rays to produce an image, these are the same X-rays that produce the X-ray images that you may well be familiar with (called radiographs).
CT works by using a continuous beam of X-rays which spin around in a doughnut shaped support called a gantry. The ‘tube head’, which produces the X-ray beam, can spin very quickly, to completely circle around the patient. While this is happening, the patient, can be moved through the gantry by electronically moving the table top. Each revolution of the X-ray tube around the patient in the scanner builds up slices of X-ray images.
After this information is obtained, powerful computers use complex software to produce images that can be recognise and interpreted. Interpretation of the hundreds of slices of information, obtained for every patient, takes considerable time and expertise, exclusively undertaken by a team of Board-Certified Specialist Radiologists.
CT scanning has a number of advantages over both conventional X-ray radiography and other imaging techniques. The main advantages are the speed with which the imaging is done, the fantastic detail in the images and the range of organs or body parts that can be scrutinised at once
What is CT used for at Cedar Grove?
CT scanning is most often used for examining the spine, joints, lungs, noses, the contents of the abdomen, and bones. CT has revolutionised the way the veterinary profession looks at problems within complicated areas of the body.
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