(October 7, 2008 Stillwater, OK) – Warrior, the 7-year old mixed breed horse, unknowingly lived up to his name recently at Oklahoma State University’s (OSU) Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Owned by Ms. Karla Welsh of Sparks, Okla., Warrior was the first horse to be placed on the facility’s new large animal table built for the GE four-slice CT scanner. Under anesthesia, Warrior was guided through the digital CT scanner. Using the digital images, veterinarians determined the cause of a large jugular aneurysm that had resulted in swelling of Warrior’s face.

“The use of the new CT will enable us to improve pre-operative planning on complicated cases,” says Dr. Valerie Moorman, Resident, Equine Surgery at the Center’s Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. “It will be especially useful for imaging complicated distal limb fractures, sinus disease, and other skull abnormalities.”

Late last year, the Veterinary Center upgraded its diagnostic imaging equipment to include the new scanner. The equipment has been used to acquire images of smaller animals, but until now, has not been used for large animals since the previous large animal table had to be modified for the new scanner.

“The OSU Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital has the only four-slice helical CT scanner available in the state for use in animals,” says Dr. Jason Arble, assistant professor in Radiology. “Along with the scanner and the new equine/food animal CT table, we can now provide the technology to assist our equine and food animal referring veterinarians and their clients with advanced imaging diagnostics. It is very fulfilling to see this unit up and running, and once the referring veterinarian realizes the benefits of this technology, as was seen in Warrior, we should see more and more cases each year.”

“Having the large animal table will make it possible to capture digital images of horses, cows and other large species,” explains Dr. Mark Neer, director of the Veterinary Hospital. “Because the four-slice helical scanner acquires data so much faster than our previous scanner, it means less time under anesthesia for the animal, which is a key to providing the best possible care for our patients.”

The table was built by Universal Medical Systems out of Solon, Ohio. The company has several similar tables at veterinary colleges across the country and some abroad at colleges and/or equine facilities.

The Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Sciences is one of 28 veterinary colleges in the United States and is fully accredited by the Council on Education of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Center’s Veterinary Medial Teaching Hospital is open to the public and provides routine and specialized care for small and large animals. It also offers 24 hour emergency care and is certified by the American Animal Hospital Association. For more information, visit www.cvhs.okstate.edu or call (405) 744-7000.

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