X-rays give us a 2-dimensional
view of a specific part of an animal's body, and are particularly
good for imaging bones, outlines of soft tissue structures,
and air-filled spaces (such as lungs). The clinic owns a powerful
ex-hospital machine which creates very high quality radiographs.
An automatic processor helps to improve the consistency of
developing, and also reduces the amount of time our staff
have to spend in the darkroom.
We would routinely take X-rays of an animal with chest and
abdominal problems, and in certain lameness's to confirm or
rule out fractures and bone misalignments. Sometimes there
may not be a fracture as such, but by taking X-rays, we can
see that bones may be out of position due to ligament injuries.
The procedure relies on the fact that the number of X-rays
passing through the tissues is different for the different
densities of each tissue. Bone doesn't allow as many X-rays
through to the X-ray plate beneath the patient, and thus
bone will show up as a white structure on the X-ray film.
Air is far less dense than bone, and allows far more X-rays
to pass through, thus air shows up as black areas on an
X-ray film. All other tissues have densities between these
two, and show up as various grey tones.
Examples of radiographs (X-ray films) can be seen on our
orthopaedic surgery page. |
