Colorado Animal Specialty & Emergency (CASE)

A CT takes a series of X-ray images from different angles around the body to provide a cross-sectional representation of bones, blood vessels, and soft tissue organs.

X-rays use electromagnetic waves that can pass through solid objects (including parts of your body) to depict a one-sided representation of internal structures like bone, blood vessels, and soft tissue organs.

Ultrasound machines use sound waves to depict internal soft tissue structures like intestines, arteries, liver and more. It also depicts real-time movement so veterinarians can evaluate the function of these structures and ensure the body is working as it should.

MRI uses magnetic fields to create images of the body’s internal structures without the use of radiation. This machine offers more detailed images of soft tissue than CT and radiographs (X-rays), and is very helpful in diagnosing disease in tissues like the brain, spinal cord, joints, muscles and ligaments.

Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy is a sophisticated form radiation planning. IMRT can be used when delivering definitive (finely fractionated or stereotactic radiation therapy) or palliative intent radiation therapy. CASE is currently one of only two veterinary hospitals in Colorado to offer the treatment. IMRT allows for the radiation dose to conform to the shape of the tumor by modulating (adjusting) the intensity of the radiation beams. The individualized radiation plan utilizing IMRT is intended to maximize the dose delivered to the tumor while simultaneously protecting the surrounding normal tissue.

IMRT also improves the ability to conform the treatment to tumor shapes, for example when a tumor is wrapped around a vulnerable structure such as the spinal cord, a major organ, or blood vessel. The net effect is that radiation doses can be “wrapped” around tumors, or “painted” within tumors, far more precisely than was previously possible. Radiation therapy, including IMRT, stops cancer cells from dividing and growing, thus slowing or stopping tumor growth. Radiation therapy in general is often used in conjunction with surgery and/or chemotherapy.

Stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) is a highly specialized form of radiation delivery that delivers 1-5 highly conformal doses of radiation to a tumor with submillimeter accuracy.

Multiple terms have been used for stereotactic-based radiation that includes stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR), and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). In a purest sense, SRS is used when describing a single high dose of radiation delivered to a lesion in the brain. Stereotactic body radiation is used to describe when delivering high dose radiation over 1-5 treatments outside the brain.

Image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) uses images of the patient at the time of treatment to determine the accuracy of setup so that corrections can be made in real time before the treatment is delivered. Our system uses cone beam-CT scans (CBCT) to confirm patient positioning to within millimeters of error.

Volumetric modulated Arc Therapy is an innovative form of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) that delivers precise continuous radiation in a single or multi-arc treatment to patient. With conventional IMRT techniques like step-and-shoot, the machine must make repeated stops and starts to treat the tumor from a number of different angles generally over 5-10 minutes. In comparison, VMAT can deliver the dose to the entire tumor in a 360-degree rotation, typically under two minutes.