Solihull-based Willows Referral Service is showing off it's new toy, a £400,000 state-of-the-art Siemens Somatom go.All CT scanner, believed to be the first in the profession.

Andrew Parry MRCVS, an RCVS and European Specialist, heads Diagnostic Imaging at Willows. He said: "Our previous CT scanner was excellent but all technology moves on. We wanted to ensure we maintained our position at the forefront of specialist veterinary diagnostic imaging.

"We have a large cardiology service and the Siemens scanner, with its advanced cardiac imaging package, will allow the team to gain a huge amount of information about cardiac disease and other vascular abnormalities. This combination of technology and on-site Specialist imaging expertise is unusual, even at a referral level.

"A further advantage of the new scanner is its use of tin filters, which enables it to produce high quality images of regions of high contrast, such as feline chests."

Willows has also invested in a software package which does all sorts of clever stuff to bring the images to life for clients.

He said: “The syngo.via software allows anyone to access and manipulate images from any computer in the hospital. This can be building complex models or more straightforward multiplanar reconstruction.

"Specialists can show models to clients immediately, while surgeons can manipulate images in theatre and all clinicians can view and interact with images from their own working environment.

"Additionally, we have invested in Siemens-manufactured software called syngo.via Cinematic VRT, which means we can build, rotate and fly through volume rendered CT models with clients, giving them a dynamic understanding of anatomy and pathology."

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