| 1. |
- Ainsbury, Elizabeth, et al.
(författare)
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Integration of new biological and physical retrospective dosimetry methods into EU emergency response plans - joint RENEB and EURADOS inter-laboratory comparisons
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Radiation Biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0955-3002 .- 1362-3095. ; 93:1, s. 99-109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: RENEB, 'Realising the European Network of Biodosimetry and Physical Retrospective Dosimetry,' is a network for research and emergency response mutual assistance in biodosimetry within the EU. Within this extremely active network, a number of new dosimetry methods have recently been proposed or developed. There is a requirement to test and/or validate these candidate techniques and inter-comparison exercises are a well-established method for such validation. Materials and methods: The authors present details of inter-comparisons of four such new methods: dicentric chromosome analysis including telomere and centromere staining; the gene expression assay carried out in whole blood; Raman spectroscopy on blood lymphocytes, and detection of radiation induced thermoluminescent signals in glass screens taken from mobile phones. Results: In general the results show good agreement between the laboratories and methods within the expected levels of uncertainty, and thus demonstrate that there is a lot of potential for each of the candidate techniques. Conclusions: Further work is required before the new methods can be included within the suite of reliable dosimetry methods for use by RENEB partners and others in routine and emergency response scenarios.
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| 2. |
- Ainsbury, Elizabeth A., et al.
(författare)
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Uncertainty of fast biological radiation dose assessment for emergency response scenarios
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Radiation Biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0955-3002 .- 1362-3095. ; 93:1, s. 127-135
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Reliable dose estimation is an important factor in appropriate dosimetric triage categorization of exposed individuals to support radiation emergency response. Materials and methods: Following work done under the EU FP7 MULTIBIODOSE and RENEB projects, formal methods for defining uncertainties on biological dose estimates are compared using simulated and real data from recent exercises. Results: The results demonstrate that a Bayesian method of uncertainty assessment is the most appropriate, even in the absence of detailed prior information. The relative accuracy and relevance of techniques for calculating uncertainty and combining assay results to produce single dose and uncertainty estimates is further discussed. Conclusions: Finally, it is demonstrated that whatever uncertainty estimation method is employed, ignoring the uncertainty on fast dose assessments can have an important impact on rapid biodosimetric categorization.
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| 3. |
- Ainsbury, Elizabeth A., et al.
(författare)
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UNCERTAINTY ON RADIATION DOSES ESTIMATED BY BIOLOGICAL AND RETROSPECTIVE PHYSICAL METHODS
- 2018
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Ingår i: Radiation Protection Dosimetry. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0144-8420 .- 1742-3406. ; 178:4, s. 382-404
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biological and physical retrospective dosimetry are recognised as key techniques to provide individual estimates of dose following unplanned exposures to ionising radiation. Whilst there has been a relatively large amount of recent development in the biological and physical procedures, development of statistical analysis techniques has failed to keep pace. The aim of this paper is to review the current state of the art in uncertainty analysis techniques across the EURADOS Working Group 10-Retrospective dosimetry members, to give concrete examples of implementation of the techniques recommended in the international standards, and to further promote the use of Monte Carlo techniques to support characterisation of uncertainties. It is concluded that sufficient techniques are available and in use by most laboratories for acute, whole body exposures to highly penetrating radiation, but further work will be required to ensure that statistical analysis is always wholly sufficient for the more complex exposure scenarios.
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| 4. |
- Brzozowska, Beata, et al.
(författare)
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RENEB accident simulation exercise
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Radiation Biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0955-3002 .- 1362-3095. ; 93:1, s. 75-80
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The RENEB accident exercise was carried out in order to train the RENEB participants in coordinating and managing potentially large data sets that would be generated in case of a major radiological event. Materials and methods: Each participant was offered the possibility to activate the network by sending an alerting email about a simulated radiation emergency. The same participant had to collect, compile and report capacity, triage categorization and exposure scenario results obtained from all other participants. The exercise was performed over 27 weeks and involved the network consisting of 28 institutes: 21 RENEB members, four candidates and three non-RENEB partners. Results: The duration of a single exercise never exceeded 10 days, while the response from the assisting laboratories never came later than within half a day. During each week of the exercise, around 4500 samples were reported by all service laboratories (SL) to be examined and 54 scenarios were coherently estimated by all laboratories (the standard deviation from the mean of all SL answers for a given scenario category and a set of data was not larger than 3 patient codes). Conclusions: Each participant received training in both the role of a reference laboratory (activating the network) and of a service laboratory (responding to an activation request). The procedures in the case of radiological event were successfully established and tested.
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| 5. |
- Endesfelder, David, et al.
(författare)
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RENEB/EURADOS field exercise 2019 : robust dose estimation under outdoor conditions based on the dicentric chromosome assay
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Radiation Biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0955-3002 .- 1362-3095. ; 97:9, s. 1181-1198
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Biological and/or physical assays for retrospective dosimetry are valuable tools to recover the exposure situation and to aid medical decision making. To further validate and improve such biological and physical assays, in 2019, EURADOS Working Group 10 and RENEB performed a field exercise in Lund, Sweden, to simulate various real-life exposure scenarios.Materials and methods: For the dicentric chromosome assay (DCA), blood tubes were located at anthropomorphic phantoms positioned in different geometries and were irradiated with a 1.36 TBq 192Ir-source. For each exposure condition, dose estimates were provided by at least one laboratory and for four conditions by 17 participating RENEB laboratories. Three radio-photoluminescence glass dosimeters were placed at each tube to assess reference doses.Results: The DCA results were homogeneous between participants and matched well with the reference doses (≥95% of estimates within ±0.5 Gy of the reference). For samples close to the source systematic underestimation could be corrected by accounting for exposure time. Heterogeneity within and between tubes was detected for reference doses as well as for DCA doses estimates.Conclusions: The participants were able to successfully estimate the doses and to provide important information on the exposure scenarios under conditions closely resembling a real-life situation.
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| 6. |
- Fattibene, Paola, et al.
(författare)
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EPR dosimetry intercomparison using smart phone touch screen glass
- 2014
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Ingår i: Radiation and Environmental Biophysics. - : Springer-Verlag New York. - 0301-634X .- 1432-2099. ; 53:2, s. 311-320
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents the results of an interlaboratory comparison of retrospective dosimetry using the electron paramagnetic resonance method. The test material used in this exercise was glass coming from the touch screens of smart phones that might be used as fortuitous dosimeters in a large-scale radiological incident. There were 13 participants to whom samples were dispatched, and 11 laboratories reported results. The participants received five calibration samples (0, 0.8, 2, 4, and 10 Gy) and four blindly irradiated samples (0, 0.9, 1.3, and 3.3 Gy). Participants were divided into two groups: for group A (formed by three participants), samples came from a homogeneous batch of glass and were stored in similar setting; for group B (formed by eight participants), samples came from different smart phones and stored in different settings of light and temperature. The calibration curves determined by the participants of group A had a small error and a critical level in the 0.37-0.40-Gy dose range, whereas the curves determined by the participants of group B were more scattered and led to a critical level in the 1.3-3.2-Gy dose range for six participants out of eight. Group A were able to assess the dose within 20 % for the lowest doses (< 1.5 Gy) and within 5 % for the highest doses. For group B, only the highest blind dose could be evaluated in a reliable way because of the high critical values involved. The results from group A are encouraging, whereas the results from group B suggest that the influence of environmental conditions and the intervariability of samples coming from different smart phones need to be further investigated. An alongside conclusion is that the protocol was easily transferred to participants making a network of laboratories in case of a mass casualty event potentially feasible.
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| 7. |
- Jaworska, Alicja, et al.
(författare)
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Operational guidance for radiation emergency response organisations in Europe for using biodosimetric tools developed in EU MULTIBIODOSE project
- 2015
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Ingår i: Radiation Protection Dosimetry. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0144-8420 .- 1742-3406. ; 164:1-2, s. 165-169
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the event of a large-scale radiological emergency, the triage of individuals according to their degree of exposure forms an important initial step of the accident management. Although clinical signs and symptoms of a serious exposure may be used for radiological triage, they are not necessarily radiation specific and can lead to a false diagnosis. Biodosimetry is a method based on the analysis of radiation-induced changes in cells of the human body or in portable electronic devices and enables the unequivocal identification of exposed people who should receive medical treatment. The MULTIBIODOSE (MBD) consortium developed and validated several biodosimetric assays and adapted and tested them as tools for biological dose assessment in a mass-casualty event. Different biodosimetric assays were validated against the 'gold standard' of biological dosimetry-the dicentric assay. The assays were harmonised in such a way that, in an emergency situation, they can be run in parallel in a network of European laboratories. The aim of this guidance is to give a concise overview of the developed biodosimetric tools as well as how and when they can be used in an emergency situation.
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| 8. |
- Kulka, Ulrike, et al.
(författare)
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RENEB - Running the European Network of biological dosimetry and physical retrospective dosimetry
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Radiation Biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0955-3002 .- 1362-3095. ; 93:1, s. 2-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: A European network was initiated in 2012 by 23 partners from 16 European countries with the aim to significantly increase individualized dose reconstruction in case of large-scale radiological emergency scenarios. Results: The network was built on three complementary pillars: (1) an operational basis with seven biological and physical dosimetric assays in ready-to-use mode, (2) a basis for education, training and quality assurance, and (3) a basis for further network development regarding new techniques and members. Techniques for individual dose estimation based on biological samples and/or inert personalized devices as mobile phones or smart phones were optimized to support rapid categorization of many potential victims according to the received dose to the blood or personal devices. Communication and cross-border collaboration were also standardized. To assure long-term sustainability of the network, cooperation with national and international emergency preparedness organizations was initiated and links to radiation protection and research platforms have been developed. A legal framework, based on a Memorandum of Understanding, was established and signed by 27 organizations by the end of 2015. Conclusions: RENEB is a European Network of biological and physical-retrospective dosimetry, with the capacity and capability to perform large-scale rapid individualized dose estimation. Specialized to handle large numbers of samples, RENEB is able to contribute to radiological emergency preparedness and wider large-scale research projects.
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| 9. |
- Trompier, Francois, et al.
(författare)
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Investigation of the influence of calibration practices on cytogenetic laboratory performance for dose estimation
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Radiation Biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0955-3002 .- 1362-3095. ; 93:1, s. 118-126
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: In the frame of the QA program of RENEB, an inter-laboratory comparison (ILC) of calibration sources used in biological dosimetry was achieved to investigate the influence of calibration practices and protocols on the results of the dose estimation performance as a first step to harmonization and standardization of dosimetry and irradiation practices in the European biological dosimetry network. Materials and methods: Delivered doses by irradiation facilities used by RENEB partners were determined with EPR/alanine dosimetry system. Dosimeters were irradiated in the same conditions as blood samples. A short survey was also performed to collect the information needed for the data analysis and evaluate the diversity of practices. Results: For most of partners the deviation of delivered dose from the targeted dose remains below 10%. Deviations larger than 10% were observed for five facilities out of 21. Origins of the largest discrepancies were identified. Correction actions were evaluated as satisfactory. The re-evaluation of some ILC results for the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and premature chromosome condensation (PCC) assays has been performed leading to an improvement of the overall performances. Conclusions: This work has shown the importance of dosimetry in radiobiology studies and the needs of harmonization, standardization in irradiation and dosimetry practices and educational training for biologists using ionizing radiation.
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| 10. |
- Van Hoey, Olivier, et al.
(författare)
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Simulation and experimental verification of ambient neutron doses in a pencil beam scanning proton therapy room as a function of treatment plan parameters
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Oncology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2234-943X. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Out-of-field patient doses in proton therapy are dominated by neutrons. Currently, they are not taken into account by treatment planning systems. There is an increasing need to include out-of-field doses in the dose calculation, especially when treating children, pregnant patients, and patients with implants. In response to this demand, this work presents the first steps towards a tool for the prediction of out-of-field neutron doses in pencil beam scanning proton therapy facilities. As a first step, a general Monte Carlo radiation transport model for simulation of out-of-field neutron doses was set up and successfully verified by comparison of simulated and measured ambient neutron dose equivalent and neutron fluence energy spectra around a solid water phantom irradiated with a variation of different treatment plan parameters. Simulations with the verified model enabled a detailed study of the variation of the neutron ambient dose equivalent with field size, range, modulation width, use of a range shifter, and position inside the treatment room. For future work, it is planned to use this verified model to simulate out-of-field neutron doses inside the phantom and to verify the simulation results by comparison with previous in-phantom measurement campaigns. Eventually, these verified simulations will be used to build a library and a corresponding tool to allow assessment of out-of-field neutron doses at pencil beam scanning proton therapy facilities.
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