Alcor CT Scanner
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:57 pm
Alcor just announced that they purchased a CT scanner. It's about time. They chose a Vimago, which I think was an outstanding choice. Because it's sold to veterinarians instead of physicians, the cost is able to be lower. Surprisingly, the resolution is 10x that of other similar medical CT scanners, which I'm still trying to figure out. In any case, I'm jealous.
I'm also curious who's going to operate it. Because the radiation on these kinds of devices is low, and because there are no living patients, they might be able to work something out with state regulators so that an unqualified person could still operate it. Another approach would be to hire a veterinarian to operate it.
When they listed out what they might use it for, they omitted the single most important reason for a having a CT scanner. The primary purpose of a CT scanner is to quantitatively validate adequate cryoprotectant concentration throughout the entire brain prior to subzero cooling. The closest they came to that was "visualizing perfusion in real time", but that's really not it at all. It's a quantitative measurement, not just a visualization, and this is a really important distinction. This lack of understanding concerns me, but at least they are sort of moving in the right direction.
I'm also curious who's going to operate it. Because the radiation on these kinds of devices is low, and because there are no living patients, they might be able to work something out with state regulators so that an unqualified person could still operate it. Another approach would be to hire a veterinarian to operate it.
When they listed out what they might use it for, they omitted the single most important reason for a having a CT scanner. The primary purpose of a CT scanner is to quantitatively validate adequate cryoprotectant concentration throughout the entire brain prior to subzero cooling. The closest they came to that was "visualizing perfusion in real time", but that's really not it at all. It's a quantitative measurement, not just a visualization, and this is a really important distinction. This lack of understanding concerns me, but at least they are sort of moving in the right direction.