Standing CT Imaging Technology Leads to Previously Undetectable Findings in Horses

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created a diagnostic imaging tool that could help prevent equine injuries through early detection and monitoring: a standing helical computed tomography (CT) scanner named Equina.

J.R. Lund, a resident and clinical instructor in diagnostic imaging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM), described how the new technology works when she spoke at the Midwest Equine Podiatry Conference in Arlington, Wis., in late fall.

“We scan the horse once and basically we can manipulate that image into giving us any projection we want,” Lund says. “So, if we wanted to look at it in a sagittal or lateral projection we can do that in the same scan as we would look at it for a DP or an axial projection. We don’t have to do multiple scans for multiple projections.”

Equina is the first CT scanner on the market to vertically scan the lower legs of a standing, sedated horse and also the first dual-purpose standing CT machine. This means it can scan up and down a patient’s legs and move horizontally to scan the head and…