RU2840185C1 - Protective barrier of orthopaedic mri for examination of extremity of horse in standing position - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: veterinary science.

SUBSTANCE: invention refers to orthopaedic MRI for examination of a standing extremity of a horse, namely to objects providing protection of an animal against mechanical traumas during diagnostic examination of an extremity by magnetic resonance imaging. Protective barrier is arranged in the form of prefabricated structure from materials that do not have magnetic properties, and includes slot-trap, which is vertically located on support of interpolar projection of false floor, arranged with the possibility to install flat vertical limiter of movement of examined limb of horse. In lower part of slot-trap pocket there installed is end sensor for informing about installation of restrictor into slot-trap. Limiter has a wedge-shaped profile.

EFFECT: proposed design of the protective barrier protects the examined extremity of a sedentary horse during diagnostics against penetration into a technological aperture of a false floor near a working zone of a tomograph at any position of a mobile magnet and thereby excludes possible injures of a horse.

2 cl, 6 dwg

Description

The invention relates to orthopedic MRI for examining a horse's limb in a standing position, namely to objects that ensure protection of the animal from mechanical injuries during diagnostic examination of the limb using magnetic resonance imaging.

Orthopedic magnetic resonance imaging of a standing horse allows obtaining detailed, high-contrast images of the examined sections of its limb in specified projections of arbitrary orientation. The use of the method ensures highly informative diagnostics of horse limb pathologies, exceeding in its diagnostic value the results of X-ray and ultrasound examinations.

When examining a horse's limb in a standing position using a veterinary orthopedic MRI, the horse is medically sedated, which is usually accompanied by certain difficulties in placing it in the working area of the tomograph, accurately aligning the examined area of its limb with the center of the working area of the tomograph magnet, and ensuring its immobility during a long examination.

Due to methodological features, this type of MRI examination, unlike MRI examination of animals in a supine position under deep anesthesia, is very demanding in terms of ensuring the safety of the horse, which in a state of semi-sleep is capable of performing large uncontrolled movements, damaging the equipment or, what is much worse, causing harm to itself.

For the above reasons, it is mandatory to ensure the safety of a standing, sedated horse in all phases of its examination on a veterinary orthopedic MRI and to exclude any emergency situations that are dangerous to its health during technologically conditioned movements of the tomograph magnet. Particular attention is paid to protecting the examined limb from getting into the technological opening of the raised floor near the working area of the magnet during examination of the proximal parts of the limb, when the magnet is raised up from the technological opening.

The prior art discloses the Hallmarq Standing Equine MRI (sMRI) system described in CA 2471244 A1 (published 26.06.2003, A61B 5/055; G01N 24/00; G01R33/28; G01R 33/38). The protection of the horse's limb being examined from stepping into the technological opening in the said device is ensured by extending a protective element of the raised floor. According to the invention, the floor section includes a frame that is built into a recess on the front edge of the platform. The frame includes a U-shaped frame consisting of two mutually parallel elements fixed at opposite ends of the side element. The open end of the frame is aligned with the front of the platform. Two fixed floor elements are mounted on the frame parallel to and between the elements to define three parallel grooves or openings. A support beam is attached to the underside of the elements to reinforce the frame and provide support for the sliding floor elements. Three rectangular floor elements are mounted so as to be able to slide along mutually parallel guides formed in the fixed elements along opposite sides of the grooves or openings.

The presented Hallmarq Standing Equine MRI (sMRI) system, however, does not provide the necessary level of protection for the horse during examination, since its design does not exclude the risk of limb displacement towards the magnet, especially when examining the proximal parts of the horse's limb. A mechanically complex protective device with a large number of mutually moving elements for dynamically overlapping the technological opening of the false floor between the poles of the magnet with a movable cover, which is released when the magnet moves during the adjustment of its working position relative to the examined joint of the horse's limb installed on the interpolar projection of the false floor, is actually intended for a different purpose, namely, to ensure the possibility of changing the horse's limb being examined without rearranging it. However, such a solution has not found practical application. The working area of the examination is located in the center of the interpolar space of the magnet, which is always located above the interpolar projection of the false floor at some distance from the end of the interpolar projection of the false floor, while allowing the placement of the examined limb in the opening area, as indicated in the analogue, is not methodically required at all. Thus, the closest analogue of orthopedic MRI for examining a horse's limb in a standing position identified by the applicant does not have a protective barrier that ensures protection of the horse's limb from stepping into the technological area of the false floor.

The objective of the invention is to ensure the safety of a sedentary horse placed in a standing position on an orthopedic MRI for examining the distal and proximal parts of its limb, aligned with the center of the working area of the mobile magnet of the tomograph.

The technical result, objectively manifested when using the claimed invention, consists in providing increased protection of the limb of a sedentary horse from falling into the technological opening of the false floor of an orthopedic tomograph, and, as a consequence, eliminating possible injury to the horse.

The technical result is achieved by the proposed design of a protective barrier for orthopedic MRI for examining horse limbs in a standing position.

According to the invention, the protective barrier is a prefabricated structure including a catcher groove vertically located on the support of the interpolar projection of the false floor, made with the possibility of installing a flat vertical limiter of the movement of the horse's limb under study in it. In the lower part of the pocket of the catcher groove, an end sensor is installed to inform about the standard installation of the limiter in the catcher groove. In this case, the barrier is made of a material that does not have magnetic properties, and the limiter has a wedge-shaped profile of the mounting rib for its free insertion under the action of gravity into the wedge-shaped pocket of the catcher groove during installation and easy removal if necessary.

The proposed solution is illustrated by the following materials.

Fig. 1 - shows the location of the examined front limb (11) of the horse in the working area of the mobile magnet (1), immersed in the technological opening (2) of the raised floor (3).

Fig. 2 - general view of the magnetic system of the orthopedic MRI with the upper location of the magnet (1) above the technological opening (2) of the raised floor (3) with the installed limiter (6) of the protective barrier.

Fig. 3 - frontal view of the working area of the tomograph with the installed vertical limiter (6) of the protective barrier of the technological opening (2) behind the interpolar protrusion (5) of the raised floor (3).

Fig. 4 - shows the location of the catch groove (4) of the protective barrier.

Fig. 5 - shows the method of mounting a protective barrier for an orthopedic MRI.

Fig. 6 - shows the location of the examined hind limb (11) of a horse in the working area of a magnet (1) immersed in a technological opening (2) of a raised floor (3) during examination of a hoof (12).

As mentioned above, when examining a standing horse's limb using veterinary orthopedic MRI, the horse is medicamentously sedated, which, as a rule, creates difficulties when it is placed motionless in the working area of the tomograph's procedural room, whereas MRI diagnostics require long-term precise alignment of the limb section being examined with the center of the magnet's working area. For this purpose, the tomograph is equipped with a magnetic system with a mobile magnet (1) in its composition and automated control elements for its movement, allowing the selection of the working position of the magnet (1) depending on the position occupied by the horse's limb being examined (Fig. 1).

To examine the distal sections of a horse's limb, such as, for example, a hoof (12), the magnet (1) is placed with its immersion in the technological opening (2) of the raised floor (3), which allows the working area of the magnet (1) to be placed opposite the horse's hoof (12) standing on the raised floor (Fig. 6).

When examining the proximal sections of a horse's limb, such as, for example, the wrist or hock, the magnet (1) is removed from the false floor (3) upwards, freeing a technological opening (2) under the poles of the magnet (1) and at the end of the interpolar projection (5) of the false floor (3) (Fig. 3). In this case, the sections of the technological opening (2) located under the poles of the magnet (1) are automatically covered by movable protective covers (9), and behind the end part of the interpolar projection (5) of the false floor (3), on which the examined limb (11) of the horse rests, a section of the technological opening (2) of the false floor (3) opens, into which the jumper (10) of the yoke of the magnet (1) was previously immersed (Fig. 5). This open section of the technological opening (2) of the working area of the raised floor (3) during the examination of the proximal parts of the limb, when the magnet (1) is raised up from the technological opening (2), can cause injury to the horse when the examined limb (11) steps into it (Fig. 1). In order to protect the horse's limb (11) during the examination, according to the invention, it is proposed to install a protective barrier (Fig. 3) in the opening (2), behind the end of the interpolar projection (5) of the raised floor (3).

The protective barrier of orthopedic MRI for examining a horse's limb in a standing position (Fig. 1) is a flat stationary limiter (6), installed with a wedge-shaped mounting rib (7) vertically in a catcher groove (4) (Fig. 5).

In the upper part of the limiter (6) a handle (8) is made for holding it, and the lower part, its installation mounting rib (7), has the shape of a wedge to allow for the unimpeded installation of the limiter (6) in the pocket of the catcher groove (4) installed on the support (13) of the interpolar projection (5) of the false floor (3) (Fig. 4). The vertical limiter (6), when installed, prevents the examined limb (11) of the horse from getting into the technological opening (2) of the false floor (3) behind the interpolar projection (5) of the false floor (3) in the working gap of the magnet (1), which is not equipped with a protective cover and is released when the mobile magnet (1) is moved.

The final position of the easily removable limiter (6) with a wedge-shaped profile of the mounting rib (7) when it is installed in the pocket of the catcher groove (7) is fixed under the action of gravity, which eliminates its accidental loss.

To automatically determine the fact of installation of the limiter (6) of the protective barrier, an end sensor of the presence of protection (not shown in the figures) is installed at the bottom of the pocket of the catcher groove (4). In the event that the limiter (6) is not installed in the catcher groove (4) or in the event that it is installed incorrectly, the electric circuit of the end sensor of the presence of protection, output to the digital input of the tomograph spectrometer, warns about the absence of the limiter (6) of the protective barrier with a flashing red flag in the scanning control interface window displayed on the monitor of the tomograph operator's workstation.

Due to the fact that the prefabricated structure of the protective barrier is located in close proximity to the working area of the magnet (1) of the tomograph, which has a high degree of homogeneity of the constant magnetic field, all elements of the barrier and, in particular, the limiter (6) are made of materials that do not have magnetic properties and therefore do not introduce distortions into the field picture of the working area of the magnet (1).

The protective barrier is made with calculation of strength characteristics, taking into account the need to provide sufficient blocking resistance to uncontrolled force effects from the examined limb (11) of the horse (Fig. 1). In this case, the limiter (6) of the protective barrier has dimensions and shape that do not interfere with the necessary movements of the magnet (1) when adjusting its working position.

The invention is used as follows.

When examining a horse on an orthopedic tomograph, the limiter (6) is installed in the pocket of the catcher groove (4) until it is completely fixed under the action of gravity, after which the examined limb (11) cannot enter the technological opening (2) of the raised floor (3) of the procedure room (Fig. 5). The constant presence of the limiter (6) of the protective barrier in the operator's field of vision simplifies the control of the safe placement of the horse during the examination. If the limiter (6) is not installed or is installed incorrectly, the electric circuit of the end sensor, output to the digital input of the tomograph spectrometer, generates a signal of the absence of a protective barrier, causing the examination to be stopped with the appearance of a flashing flag in the scanning control interface window displayed on the monitor of the tomograph operator's workstation, which requires eliminating the cause of the abnormal situation in order to continue the examination.

Even in the case when a horse, being in a sedated state, makes amplitude uncontrolled movements, the proposed invention protects the examined limb of the horse from falling into the technological opening of the false floor near the working area of the tomograph magnet in any position of the mobile and, thus, eliminates possible injury to the horse.

When using a protective barrier, reliable, visually controlled, insurmountable protection is provided by the horse from getting its examined limb into the technological opening (2) of the false floor (3), located behind the end part of the interpolar projection (5) of the false floor (3), on which it stands when moving the magnet (1) in the process of adjusting its working position relative to the examined limb of the horse and during further examination. Thus, the possibility of injury to the examined limb of the horse during examination is excluded.

Claims (2)

1. A protective barrier for orthopedic MRI for examining a horse's limb in a standing position, which is a prefabricated structure made of non-magnetic materials, including a vertical limiter for the movement of the horse's limb being examined and a catcher groove designed with the possibility of installing the limiter in it, wherein the catcher groove is vertically located on the support of the interpolar projection of the false floor, and in the lower part of the pocket of the catcher groove an end sensor is installed to inform about the installation of the limiter in it. 2. A protective barrier according to paragraph 1, characterized in that the limiter has a wedge-shaped profile.