A 30-month-old Maine Coon presented with progressive proprioceptive ataxia, paraparesis, thoracolumbar pain, and decreased appetite. An extradural mass was detected within the left side of the 13th thoracic vertebral canal that compressed the spinal cord on magnetic resonance (MR) and was considered to be mineralized on computed tomography (CT) images. The resected mass was diagnosed as a vertebral vascular hamartoma. Clinical signs improved, but recurrence was diagnosed by MR and CT imaging at 7 months after surgery. Repeated excisional surgery yielded the same diagnosis and the clinical signs abated. Fifteen months after the second surgery, there was apparent vertebral deformation, but there was no further change on CT images by 29 months.

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A 6-year-old, 3.2-kg, spayed Maltese dog was referred for treatment of patent ductus arteriosus. To determine the treatment method, electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated non-helical CT angiography was performed using 320-row area detector CT. The dog was pre-medicated with atropine, and induced anaesthesia with propofol, and intubated. General anaesthesia was maintained by administering isoflurane in oxygen.Plane examination was performed using ECG-gated axial scans to cover the whole heart. CT angiography was performed intermittently 5 times for every three cardiac cycles with prospective ECG-gating scans after injection of contrast medium (Fig 1A). Bean collimation is 320×0.5 mm, that is 16 cm area data, so the whole heart image was obtained at one rotation. Prompt rotation time (0.275 s) and half-reconstruction were able to perform with short scan time (1.84 to 1.87 s at one scan) and even at high hart rate (120 to 137 bpm). A third reconstructed image with the most uniform intravascular contrast enhancement of the ductus arteriosus was selected (Fig 1B to D).The ductus arteriosus was type IIB morphology according to the Miller classification scheme and its end-diastolic minimal diameter was 2.8 mm, exhibiting the indication for coil occlusion (coil size: 6.5 mm). Coil occlusion was successfully completed. We used this non-helical method to overcome the problems of helical method such as motion artefacts and banding artefacts due to helical interpolation, and to select the best among several reconstructed images. ECG-gated non-helical 320-row area detector CT angiography in this case was helpful to select an adequate device option to close the patent ductus arteriosus.