Case Study: CT - Thoracic surgery
Cindy had been coughing persistently over the previous two months. The primary veterinarian had taken some chest X-rays and identified a tumour in one of her lung lobes, and had referred her to Willows for further assessment with the view to surgically removing it. Three weeks after the surgery she was doing very well and her chemotherapy had commenced.
The first CT image shows a single slice through the area of the tumour. In the centre of the mass are several white speckles which represent areas of calcium deposition (mineralisation). The adjacent rib is unaffected. The second image is a post-processing reconstruction (an image reformatted by the powerful computer on the CT scanner) of the chest but in a different imaging plane. The heart can be seen in the middle of the picture. The mass seen on the first image can be seen to the right of the heart and to the left of the nearby ribs. Outside of the chest to the right of the image a large fatty lump (a lipoma) can be seen bulging from the surface of the skin. These are a not uncommon finding in some of our older patients and, if they do not grow too large, will not tend to cause too much of a problem. The third image is a post-processing 3D reconstruction of the chest with the ribs 'cut away' by the CT computer. This type of image can sometimes assist in planning the surgery as it helps the surgeon to visualise the distribution of the lesion inside the patient before starting the procedure.
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