Portable X-Ray Machines

3Beasties

3Beasties

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Do Portable X-Ray machines 'develop' (if that's even the correct term! :o ) the X-rays straight away/on the spot or do you have to wait for them to be done back at the practice?

Sorry for the intensely dumb question :o :o
 
The short answer is that both are possible depending on the type of equipment your vet has. We have a direct radiography system where the images appear immediately on the screen, with other systems the vet will have to take them back to the practice to process.
 
chestnut cob said:
Whenever my horse has been x-rayed at the yard (ie, with portable XR machine), the instrument is controlled by PC and the images appear on there.
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This. However, I think there must be other checks they do too. When my mare kicked her field mate, initially the fracture didn't show up on the computer screen, the vet emailed it to a specialist and also looked at it properly back in the office before they found the fracture.
 
The 3 sets of xrays my horse has had this year both at the horsepital and at the yard they were both linked to a laptop which they came up on. Not too sure what machine they used for his op though, guessing it was abit more technical
 
There are 2 types of portable X-Ray machine. CR is Computed Radiography that needs to be put through a reader to be processed - this takes less than a minute and the image is then viewable on a PC/laptop. The reader is small enough to be in a car boot - it's the size of a large printer.

DR is Direct Radiography and the image appears immediately on a PC/laptop screen without the need to be put through a reader. This is what most if not all of the equine hospitals would be using.
 
skint1 said:
This. However, I think there must be other checks they do too. When my mare kicked her field mate, initially the fracture didn't show up on the computer screen, the vet emailed it to a specialist and also looked at it properly back in the office before they found the fracture.
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I think you'll find that the image was the one that they took initially - there's not much more they can do with it once it's taken. I suspect that the fracture DID show up on the computer screen, but your vet didn't spot it - the specialist did. And that's what specialists are for.

And thank God that your vet was good enough to refer the image to a specialist - he/she must have had suspicions...........
 
You can (but probably fairly unlikely nowadays) have plain old film type x-rays that are developped in the old way back at the practice. As said above, DRs display to computer on site, CR has to go back to the developper) almost certainly at the practice.
 
Wishful said:
CR has to go back to the developper) almost certainly at the practice.
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Computed Radiography is not 'developed' like film, that is not true. It needs a reader as it is made of storage phosphors and a laser is needed to release them. It is a different process to the older film screens.
 
tobysg said:
Computed Radiography is not 'developed' like film, that is not true. It needs a reader as it is made of storage phosphors and a laser is needed to release them. It is a different process to the older film screens.
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Thanks for that - all I know is that like the old stuff the cartridge thingy goes back to a magic machine and out comes an image... The old developer was kind of like that (seen it in action) - think the advantage is lack of need for dark room????
 
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