Horse owners missing out on the diagnostic tool of scintigraphy
Press release
13 May 2008
Horse owners may be missing out on the valuable diagnostic tool of scintigraphy, which can help with identifying the causes of lameness, says Dr Chris Whitton, coordinator of the equine scintigraphy service at the Faculty of Veterinary Science's Equine Centre.
Many veterinarians are unaware of the quality and sophistication of the imaging provided by the Equine Centre's Scintigraphy Service, he says, and may not think to recommend it to their clients.
Scintigraphy, also known as bone scanning, can provide an indication of the physiological change occurring within the bone often before the injury would be detected using the more traditional methods of radiography or ultrasound.
Dr Gareth Trope, resident in equine surgery at the University’s Werribee Veterinary Clinic and Hospital is also a fan of the imaging tool.
"It is particularly useful in examining causes of upper limb lameness such as pelvic fractures, sacro-iliac pain and back pain. These areas are difficult to image with radiographs.
"Other advantages include the ability to scan the entire skeleton easily and in a relatively short time while the horse is standing and sedated; the fact that it can provide information about active bone remodeling; and its usefulness in the diagnosis of stress fractures in racehorses."
Dr Trope describes the process: "The horse is usually sedated but remains standing for the procedure (on rare occasions we would perform the scan on a horse under general anaesthesia). A radioactive compound attached to a bone tracer is injected into a vein. The tracer 'sticks' in areas of increased bone activity (hotspots) and three hours later a gamma camera records the amount and location of radiation. This information is processed by a computer into a picture of the horse’s skeleton where hot spots can be seen at sites of injury.
"Despite sedation, small movements and swaying are a common cause of poor image quality. Blurry pictures can result in incorrect diagnoses and this is especially a problem with back and upper limb scans. The Equine Centre has installed an advanced digital processing system and motion correction software which produces high quality images that have been the envy of visiting specialists from all over the world."
Dr Whitton agrees. The Equine Centre has been offering a scintigraphy service for the last five years and he believes it is one of the best in the country.
"It is the combination of the sophistication of our equipment, the incorporation of the movement correction software and the fact that we have a dedicated nuclear medicine technician, Tanya Puksmann, that makes the Equine Centre’s scintigraphy service so outstanding.
"The equipment is very sensitive," says Dr Whitton, "and it requires a lot of tweaking to keep it producing accurate, repeatable information. We’re very fortunate to have Tanya, who is highly qualified and widely admired for her skills in the area of nuclear medicine."
With over 700 scintigraphy scans performed over the last five years, the Equine Centre is accumulating vast amounts of data that is being utilised in many ongoing research projects within the University.
Dr Whitton hopes more vets will soon be recommending scintigraphy for those nagging lameness cases that have no obvious cause.
For further information please contact Andrea Jones, Marketing Manager, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, Tel: 8344 7844 or email: ajone@unimelb.edu.au