Dosimetry

About: Dosimetry is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 18990 publications have been published within this topic receiving 364964 citations.

A technique for the quantitative evaluation of dose distributions

Abstract: The commissioning of a three-dimensional treatment planning system requires comparisons of measured and calculated dose distributions. Techniques have been developed to facilitate quantitative comparisons, including superimposed isodoses, dose-difference, and distance-to-agreement (DTA) distributions. The criterion for acceptable calculation performance is generally defined as a tolerance of the dose and DTA in regions of low and high dose gradients, respectively. The dose difference and DTA distributions complement each other in their useful regions. A composite distribution has recently been developed that presents the dose difference in regions that fail both dose-difference and DTA comparison criteria. Although the composite distribution identifies locations where the calculation fails the preselected criteria, no numerical quality measure is provided for display or analysis. A technique is developed to unify dose distribution comparisons using the acceptance criteria. The measure of acceptability is the multidimensional distance between the measurement and calculation points in both the dose and the physical distance, scaled as a fraction of the acceptance criteria. In a space composed of dose and spatial coordinates, the acceptance criteria form an ellipsoid surface, the major axis scales of which are determined by individual acceptance criteria and the center of which is located at the measurement point in question. When the calculated dose distribution surface passes through the ellipsoid, the calculation passes the acceptance test for the measurement point. The minimum radial distance between the measurement point and the calculation points (expressed as a surface in the dose–distance space) is termed the γ index. Regions where γ>1 correspond to locations where the calculation does not meet the acceptance criteria. The determination of γ throughout the measured dose distribution provides a presentation that quantitatively indicates the calculation accuracy. Examples of a 6 MV beam penumbra are used to illustrate the γ index.

Thermal dose determination in cancer therapy

Abstract: With the rapid development of clinical hyperthermia for the treatment of cancer either alone or in conjunction with other modalities, a means of measuring a thermal dose in terms which are clinically relevant to the biological effect is needed. A comparison of published data empirically suggests a basic relationship that may be used to calculate a "thermal dose." From a knowledge of the temperature during treatment as a function of time combined with a mathematical description of the time-temperature relationship, an estimate of the actual treatment calculated as an exposure time at some reference temperature can be determined. This could be of great benefit in providing a real-time accumulated dose during actual patient treatment. For the purpose of this study, a reference temperature of 43 degrees C has been arbitrarily chosen to convert all thermal exposures to "equivalent-minutes" at this temperature. This dose calculation can be compared to an integrated calculation of the "degree-minutes" to determine its prognostic ability. The time-temperature relationship upon which this equivalent dose calculation is based does not predict, nor does it require, that different tissues have the same sensitivity to heat. A computer program written in FORTRAN is included for performing calculations of both equivalent-minutes (t43) and degree-minutes (tdm43). Means are provided to alter the reference temperature, the Arrhenius "break" temperature and the time-temperature relationship both above and below the "break" temperature. In addition, the effect of factors such as step-down heating, thermotolerance, and physiological conditions on thermal dose calculations are discussed. The equations and methods described in this report are not intended to represent the only approach for thermal dose estimation; instead, they are intended to provide a simple but effective means for such calculations for clinical use and to stimulate efforts to evaluate data in terms of therapeutically useful thermal units.

Absorbed Dose Determination in External Beam Radiotherapy: An International Code of Practice for Dosimetry based on Standards of Absorbed Dose to Water

Abstract: Pedro Andreo, Dosimetry and Medical Radiation Physics Section, IAEA David T Burns, Bureau International des Poids et Measures (BIPM) Klaus Hohlfeld, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany M Saiful Huq, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA Tatsuaki Kanai, National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), Chiba, Japan Fedele Laitano, Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie L’Energia e L’Ambiente (ENEA), Rome, Italy Vere Smyth, National Radiation Laboratory (NRL), Christchurch, New Zealand Stefaan Vynckier, Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Brussels, Belgium