Although seven of the authors are employed by commercial entities (RP and BM: ZooParc de Beauval, France AM: Parc zoologique d'Amnéville, France PE: Parc zoologique de La Barben, France RB and TF: Hospital Veterinário, Jardim Zoológico de Lisboa, Portugal JM: Toshiba Medical Systems Europe, The Netherlands), this does not alter their adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.ĭiagnostic imaging in domestic animals has a long-established pedestal on a plethora of published data supported by huge numbers (tens of thousands) of examined subjects. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: These authors have no support or funding to report.Ĭompeting interests: None of the authors of this paper has a financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias the content of this paper. Received: JanuAccepted: Published: June 25, 2014Ĭopyright: © 2014 Galateanu et al. PLoS ONE 9(6):Įditor: Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes, INIA, Spain
(2014) Rhinoceros Feet Step Out of a Rule-of-Thumb: A Wildlife Imaging Pioneering Approach of Synchronized Computed Tomography-Digital Radiography. With this we hope to provide veterinary clinicians with concrete imaging techniques and substantial diagnostic tools, which facilitate straightforward attainment and interpretation of field radiography images taken worldwide.Ĭitation: Galateanu G, Hermes R, Saragusty J, Göritz F, Potier R, Mulot B, et al.
Based on its main advantages in availing a wide range of keystone data in wildlife imaging from a limited number of examined subjects and combining advantages of CT as the golden standard method for bone diseases' diagnostic with DR's clinical feasibility under field conditions, synchronized CT-DR presents a new perspective on wildlife's health management.
Several advances were achieved, endowing the wildlife clinician with all-important tools: prototype DR exposure protocols and a modus operandi for foot positioning, advancing both traditional projections and, for the first-time, species-related radiographic views assessment of radiographic diagnostic value for the whole foot and, in premiere, for each autopodial bone together with additional insights into radiographic appearance of bone anatomy and pathology with a unique, simultaneous CT-DR correlation. Whereas this approach can be applied in any clinical field, as a case of outstanding importance and great concern for zoological institutions, we selected foot bone pathologies in captive rhinoceroses to demonstrate the manifold applications of the method. For these reasons, the authors initiated a multi-modality imaging study and established a pioneering approach of synchronized computed tomography (CT) and digital radiography (DR), based on X-ray projections derived from three-dimensional CT reconstructed images. Numerous hindrances lead to such limited numbers and it became very clear that the traditional perspective on bone imaging in domestic animals based on extensive studies and elaborated statistical evaluations cannot be extrapolated to their non-domestic relatives. Nevertheless, while chronic foot disease in captive mega-herbivores is widely reported, foot radiographic imaging is confronted with scarcity of studies. Currently, radiography is the only imaging technique used to diagnose bone pathology in wild animals situated under “field conditions”.