For the Health of It
UC Davis Acquires First Equine PET Scanner
By CEH Horse Report
The UC Davis veterinary hospital recently acquired a positron
emission tomography (PET) scanner, becoming the first veterinary
facility in the world to utilize the
imaging technology for equine
patients. In association with the UC
Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Center for Equine Health
(CEH), the hospital will launch use
of the PET scanner in the summer
of 2016. The unit has been acquired
for research and clinical studies
on lameness diagnosis in horses.
While most other imaging techniques provide “morphological”
information (identifying changes in
size, shape or density of structures),
PET is a “functional” imaging
technique, observing activity at the
molecular level – detecting changes
in the tissue before the size or shape
is modified. Once morphological
changes have occurred, PET can tell
whether the changes are still active
or not. “In practicality, that means
two things,” said Dr. Mathieu Spriet, a UC Davis veterinary radiologist. “One, PET can detect lesions
that other advanced modalities do
not identify, and two, it can tell us
if a lesion—identified with another
modality—is a significant injury or
not.” The equine PET scanner has
produced initial data—obtained last
year at UC Davis during a research
project using a prototype of the
new scanner—that demonstrates
great success for bone imaging. The
project revealed several PET capabilities for equine imaging:
• identified small areas of bone
remodeling at the attachment
8 • Walking On
of tendons or ligaments missed
with other modalities
• showed increased activity in
bone adjacent to joints, where
degenerative changes are
known to occur, before morphological changes were present
• revealed increased activity in
some joint fragments whereas
other joint fragments appeared
quiet
• demonstrated that some areas of
bone proliferation were active,
whereas others were quiescent
“Preliminary data suggests that
PET will be the next big revolution
in equine imaging since the development of MRI,” said Spriet.
In order to confirm these findings and further define the role of
PET in lameness imaging, UC Davis will launch a clinical trial in the
fall of 2016. Horses likely to benefit
from enrollment in the trial are:
• horses for which other advanced
imaging modalities (MRI, CT
or nuclear scintigraphy) have
failed to identify the cause of
the lameness
• horses for which the results of
other imaging modalities are
confusing due to the presence
of multiple abnormalities or
equivocal findings
PET has also shown great promises in evaluating soft tissue lesions,
in particular regarding laminitis
and tendon lesions. Research studies gathering further information in
these specific areas will commence
shortly at UC Davis. As more
data becomes available, additional
clinical trials will likely develop.
Support for research projects and
clinical trials involving PET, as well
as the acquisition of the scanner,
was provided by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and
private donations through CEH.
“We’re grateful that our donors can
see the vision of what these new
technologies can bring to equine
health,” said Dr. Claudia Sonder,
director of CEH. “We look forward
to this PET research translating to
cutting-edge clinical applications at
the UC Davis veterinary hospital.”
About the Veterinary Medical Teaching
Hospital The William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the
University of California, Davis—a unit of
the #1 world ranked School of Veterinary
Medicine—provides state-of-the-art clinical
care while serving as the primary clinical
teaching experience for DVM students and
post graduate veterinarian residents. The
VMTH treats more than 51,000 animals a
year, ranging from cats and dogs to horses, cows and exotic species. To learn more
about the VMTH, please go to www.vetmed.
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