Characterization of a transmission ionization beam-imager for radiotherapy verification
Publication Date
2003-08-21ICR Author
Author
Thomas, MDR
Symonds-Tayler, JRN
Type
Journal Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A system for radiotherapy treatment verification is proposed, using an air-ionization chamber with 1600 simultaneously readable 1 cm pixels. An image of the entire beam may be used to calibrate a portal image, to verify the position of the multi-leaf collimator with respect to delivered dose (either before or during treatment) and to check beam flatness and symmetry. This study characterizes the physical behaviour of such a system. A test chamber has been constructed and its temporal and spatial resolution and noise characteristics are evaluated. Several parameters of the design are varied, and their effects assessed. Temporal resolution is adequate to allow readout between each linear accelerator pulse at 400 pulses per second. Application of low atomic-number build-up and reduction of plate separation were the most effective methods to improve spatial resolution. The full width at half maximum of the line-spread function is shown to be 4.5 mm using a pre-sampling technique. The peak pixel-signal to x-ray quantum noise ratio exceeds 100. Prototype electronics have been tested, demonstrating that electronic noise could be reduced to a level below the x-ray quantum noise. The results of the study allow the simulation of any possible application to evaluate the proposed verification system.
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Version of record
Language
English
License start date
2003-08-21
Citation
PHYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY, 2003, 48 pp. 2633 - 2644
Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD