One time right, no need for a second scan.
In veterinary medicine the patient isn't motivated to cooperate with his surgeon.
Especially in radiology, examining the patient without sedation is an issue. If your first attempt in imaging does not result in a correct image, the second attempt will not be aprecciated by the patient so one time right is the best option.
One time right is difficult. A correct image depends on the properties of the subject, the specifications of the detector and the radiation generated by the X-ray tube.
Your subject
For the most important 2 species, dogs and cats, there are 50 image directions per species. Each direction has it's own anatomy and thus it's own specific effect on radiation. A Chihuahua is a dog but a Great Dane is it too! This results in a nice puzzle for selecting correct settings for kV and mAs.
The properties of the subject must be translated to settings. Veterinary parameters are image direction and size. Image direction is technically spoken the selection of a specific anatomical composition. Size is just measuring the centimeters.
For any veterinarian with a measuring rod both parameters will be easy.
Your detector
Many detectors are available but one thing is for sure: they are all different. Even detectors of the same type will differ in their properties to detect radiation. MIQvet offers you the opportunity to adjust the desired settings to your own combination of detector and X-ray tube.
At first access you will have to perform a calibration but with the tutorials provided this is not difficult.
Please watch these tutorials before you decide to calibrate. Calibration consist of making series of images which differ from under exposed to over exposed. In these series you will have to select the most optimal image.
Examining the kidney region in an abdomen of 10 to 15 centimeters turns out to be the best option for calibration.
Your X-ray tube
This is the daily part of radiology. For every image you will have to decide what settings to use.
Making tables by trial and error is second best option. Using MIQvet is the best. It has all anatomical parameters stored and can be calibrated for any situation. What rests is a measuring rod.
By default MIQvet uses 10mAs. This results in the best balance between details in the image and tube wearing. For abdominal images this will be increased to 15 mAs for reducing the kV's as much as possible. Reducing kV's is equal to increasing contrast.
