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In addition to this, the administration of anaesthesia in amphibians and reptiles itself is often problematic and requires practical and ethical considerations. The design would be incompatible with equipment required during anaesthesia.There is very limited information is available on the radiation doses produced by industrial ♜T scanners that are not developed for in vivo animal studies.There are two major issues with this rotating sample design: Industrial ♜T scanners differ from the commercial variety in that the sample holder rotates while the X-ray source and detector remain relatively stationary, rather than the X-ray source and detector rotating around a stationary sample (similar to a clinical CT scanner used in hospitals). Various scientific institutions however, such as the CT scanner facility at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), are in the possession of a different type of ♜T scanners, often referred to as industrial ♜T scanners. The main barrier hindering the advancement and implementation of in vivo ♜T is the limited research access to commercial ♜T scanners optimised for small living animals. Overcoming the Hurdles of In Vivo ♜T in Non-Medical Studies Industrial ♜T scanner set-up at the CT-scanning facility, Stellenbosch University.
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Micro-CT scanning has the potential to significantly advance this field, but there are issues that need to be addressed first. Reptiles and amphibians, especially lizards, have a long history of serving as model study organisms for an array of ecological and evolutionary studies, but invasive techniques still dominate morphological measurements of skeletal features. The use of in vivo ♜T in ecological and evolutionary studies, however, has greatly lagged behind its use in biomedical studies. It can reduce the number of animals required to obtain statistically meaningful data.Ī variety of commercially available ♜T scanners that are optimised for scanning live animals are now available.It eliminates variation among individuals.It allows for repeated measurements of small live animals at different times without having to sacrifice them.In vivo ♜T holds three major advantages over other methods: Three-dimensional models like these could provide insight into diseases and guide the development of medicines and therapies. Micro-CT has important applications in medical imaging and, in the biomedical field, in vivo ♜T allows researchers to make virtual 3D models of the skeleton and organs of live small animals. Virtual 3D models can be made from these cross-sections without destroying the original samples. X-ray micro-computed tomography – or ♜T – is a technique that uses x-rays to create high resolution cross-sections of samples. MOUTON AND CANG HUI Lizards, such as these South African armadillo lizards, serve an important role as model organisms for various ecological and evolutionary studies. POST PROVIDED BY CHRIS BROECKHOVEN, ANTON DU PLESSIS, STEPHAN G.