INSTRUMENTAL AND TECHNICAL NOTES. AN INEXPENSIVE SERIAL CHANGER FOR LUMBAR THORACIC AORTOGRAPHY.

Abstract

An increasing demand for lumbar and thoracic aortography in the X-ray departments of the smaller hospitals has created the need for a simple and inexpensive cassette changer suitable for these procedures. Hitherto, the choice of equipment available lay between the hand-drawn variety of changer such as the Garrow and the very expensive Elema-Schonander AOT or rollfilm changers. Installation of the latter is difficult to justify in the smaller X-ray department where angiocardiography is rarely if ever performed, and where the amount of angiography generally is not very great. Our experience with a hand-drawn changer showed that despite the addition of automatic exposure devices to speed up the rate at which films could be taken, adequate renal arteriography was not always attainable. Speeds of at least three films per second are necessary to achieve satisfactory results in 100 per cent of cases and speeds faster than this are sometimes desirable. These considerations led to an examination of the possibility...