The external dimensions of ETS^TM are chosen so that it fits through a standard interior doorway.
The lightweight design (less than 200 kg) allows one person to easily move the CBCT scanner indoors.

Small animals are laid entirely on the concave tomographic table .
Small voxel size allows to display small details confidently.
Examination of several areas is possible with a single laying of the animal.

Examples of tomograms of a dog weighing up to 5 kg

Medium size dogs up to 20 Kg are placed on the external side table.

When examining the limbs of large animals, their torso is placed on the external table, and the examined parts are placed on the concave examination table.

ARTIFACTS FROM METAL OBJECTS

These arise when objects with high X-ray density and sharp boundaries get into the imaging area. This situation occurs when observing the results of surgical operations with fixation screws, metal strips, etc. The MAR (Metal Artifacts Reduction) software package is used to suppress artifacts from metal objects. The result of applying the MAR package is illustrated by the example of examining a phantom (Fig. a) of a large animal bone after a fracture and surgical intervention.

Bone phantom (a), tomogram without MAR (b) and with MAR (c).

During the surgical procedure, the bone was fused together with fixation screws.  The initial tomographic image (Fig.b) showed intense artifacts from the metal screws, which interfered with the observation of the accuracy of bone fracture alignment as a result of the surgery. After using the MAR package (Fig.c), the observation of the accuracy of debris alignment improved significantly. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the MAR package in suppressing artifacts from metal objects.

MOTION ARTIFACTS

These artefacts occur when the examined part of the animal moves during a 60 s. In the images of tomographic slices artifacts appear in the form of increased noise, additional contours, areas with sharp fluctuations in X-ray density and loss of image clarity.

To eliminate motion artifacts, the animal must be properly stowed and radiopaque retainers must be used.

The greatest degree of motion artifacts are present when examining the lungs and moving internal organs: heart, diaphragm, etc. A means of reducing motion artifacts caused by breathing is artificial lung ventilation with a 60 s stop.

There are practically no motion artifacts when examining equine limbs. To reduce the risk of motion artifacts, it is advisable to place the examined limb on the examination table with support at two points. This is achieved by adjusting the elevation of the external table.

ARTIFACTS OF IRRADIATION INHOMOGENEITY

Can occur when an animal is improperly stowed, when a part of it (e.g., a limb) extends beyond the area of the tomography scan. In terms of reconstruction, this situation is equivalent to a non-uniform X-ray exposure.

This results in characteristic artifacts in the image.
To avoid artifacts of irradiation heterogeneity, the animal should be stowed strictly within a cylindrical imaging area inscribed in a concave imaging table. If necessary, radiopaque fixation bandages should be used when stacking.