Imaging Services (x-rays, CAT scan, nuclear medicine)

Radiology

• Radiology is the process of using x-rays to generate pictures on film.
• Radiographs can be used to evaluate all parts of the body for various injuries or diseases including: the abdomen, the thorax, the head and neck, and the legs.
• Radiographs are evaluated based on the different “opacities” of the body tissues.
• Air is the least opaque material. It will show up black on X-ray film. Fat, soft tissue, and fluid are increasingly more opaque. Bones show up white. Metal is even more opaque; it appears whitest on X-ray film.



Ultrasound



• Ultrasound uses sound waves. Sound waves reflect off organs, and a special machine called a transducer converts the sound waves into a picture.
• Certain organs are more “echogenic” than others, meaning they reflect more of the waves and therefore appear whiter on the screen. For example, in the abdomen, the prostate is more echogenic (whiter) than the spleen followed by the liver, and then the kidney.
• Ultrasound can be used to diagnose many diseases, such as cancer, and can also be used to evaluate pregnancies.
• Other imaging tools that are used at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital include nuclear scintigraphy, CT (computed tomography), and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).