Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital Offers State's Only Equine MRI
In March the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign became the only veterinary facility in Illinois offering MRI services for its equine patients. Previously it had offered MRIs for small animal patients, but the new MRI machine--the Vet-MR Grande, manufactured by Genova, Italy-based Esaote, the world's leading dedicated MRI company--has an open-magnet design capable of imaging the neck, brain, and lower extremities of horses and other large animals.
Problems of the foot and fetlock are the most common reason to use MRI for equine patients. The hoof surrounding the bones in a horse's foot makes it extremely difficult to diagnose soft tissue lameness with conventional methods, according to Dr. Kristen O'Dell-Anderson, a veterinary specialist in diagnostic imaging at the teaching hospital. An MRI can distinguish between soft tissues and bone in a way that other diagnostic methods do not allow, so that veterinarians can assess the health of all tissues within the foot and get a clearer picture of the disease or injury.
When routine diagnostic approaches--such as a general lameness examination, radiographs, nerve blocks, nuclear medicine, and ultrasounds--fail to find the source of the lameness, MRIs can be useful.
Like all MRI magnets, this 0.3 tesla unit will wipe out credit cards and interfere with pacemakers that come within a range of about 12 feet. It's important to ensure that horses being imaged have no metal from horseshoes that would affect the imaging procedure.
The procedure takes about 3 hours, from the time the horse is anesthetized, placed on a wheeled exam table, and positioned within the MRI "camera" to the time all the scans are completed.
The equine-capable MRI machine is also used to image a variety of ailments in small animal patients. Dr. O'Dell-Anderson said that an MRI is helpful when diagnosing neurological problems in cats and dogs, as well as distinguishing between an infection, trauma, or a tumor in the brain.
The MRI room contains its own anesthesia and monitoring equipment for both equine and small animal patients. Patients must be anesthetized because of the length of time an MRI takes. Unlike human patients, animals can't be asked to hold still for an extended period.