Inventors:
Mark R. Marquardt - Naperville IL
International Classification:
A61B 505
Abstract:
An apparatus and method is disclosed for medically examining a patient's spine using a non-invasive technique such as computerized tomography (CT). In this apparatus and method the patient is seated in a generally vertically-oriented chair which is tiltable in a forward and rearward direction, is pivotable relative to a vertical axis, is vertically movable and is stationary so as to adjustably induce gravitational effects on the patient's back. A pivotable chair back can be included for controllably applying additional loads or flexion to the patient's back. An annularly-shaped examination device, such as as CT device, is horitonzally positioned on a support frame over the patient who is aligned with a central opening in the device. The device can be positioned about the patient and oriented horizontally or angularly displaced relative to the horizontal for optimizing or adjusting the generated image. The examination device may be tiltable about a horizontal axis transverse to the direction of tilting of the chair.