| 1. |
- Adolfsson, Emelie, et al.
(författare)
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Investigation of signal fading in lithium formate EPR dosimeters using a new sensitive method
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : Institute of Physics (IOP). - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 57:8, s. 2209-2217
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate signal fading in lithium formate electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimeters used for clinical applications in radiotherapy. A new experimental method for determination of signal fading, designed to resolve small changes in signal from slowly decaying unstable radicals, was used. Possible signal fading in lithium formate due to different storage temperatures was also tested. Air humidity was kept at a constant level of 33% throughout the experiments. The conclusion drawn from the investigations was that the EPR signal from lithium formate is stable during at least 1 month after irradiation and is not sensitive to variations in storage temperature andlt;40 degrees C when kept at a relative air humidity of 33%. This makes lithium formate a suitable dosimeter for transfer dosimetry in clinical audits.
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| 2. |
- Aleman, Dionne M., et al.
(författare)
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Interior point algorithms : guaranteed optimality for fluence map optimization in IMRT
- 2010
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 55:18, s. 5467-5482
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the most widely studied problems of the intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning problem is the fluence map optimization (FMO) problem, the problem of determining the amount of radiation intensity, or fluence, of each beamlet in each beam. For a given set of beams, the fluences of the beamlets can drastically affect the quality of the treatment plan, and thus it is critical to obtain good fluence maps for radiation delivery. Although several approaches have been shown to yield good solutions to the FMO problem, these solutions are not guaranteed to be optimal. This shortcoming can be attributed to either optimization model complexity or properties of the algorithms used to solve the optimization model. We present a convex FMO formulation and an interior point algorithm that yields an optimal treatment plan in seconds, making it a viable option for clinical applications.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Jonas, 1975-, et al.
(författare)
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A comparison of different experimental methods for general recombination correction for liquid ionization chambers
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 57:21, s. 7161-7175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Radiation dosimetry of highly modulated dose distributions requires a detector with a high spatial resolution. Liquid filled ionization chambers (LICs) have the potential to become a valuable tool for the characterization of such radiation fields. However, the effect of an increased recombination of the charge carriers, as compared to using air as the sensitive medium has to be corrected for. Due to the presence of initial recombination in LICs, the correction for general recombination losses is more complicated than for air-filled ionization chambers. In the present work, recently published experimental methods for general recombination correction for LICs are compared and investigated for both pulsed and continuous beams. The experimental methods are all based on one of two approaches, either measurements at two different dose rates (two-dose-rate methods), or measurements at three different LIC polarizing voltages (three-voltage methods). In a comparison with the two-dose-rate methods, the three-voltage methods fail to achieve accurate corrections in several instances, predominantly at low polarizing voltages and dose rates. However, for continuous beams in the range of polarizing voltages recommended by the manufacturer of the LICs used, the agreement between the different methods is generally within the experimental uncertainties. For pulsed beams, the agreement between the methods is poor. The inaccuracies found in the results from the three-voltage methods are associated with numerical difficulties in solving the resulting equation systems, which also make these methods sensitive to small variations in the experimental data. These issues are more pronounced for the case of pulsed beams. Furthermore, the results suggest that the theoretical modelling of initial recombination used in the three-voltage methods may be a contributing factor to the deviating results observed.
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Application of the two-dose-rate method for general recombination correction for liquid ionization chambers in continuous beams
- 2011
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 56:2, s. 299-314
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A method to correct for the general recombination losses for liquid ionization chambers in continuous beams has been developed. The proposed method has been derived from Greening's theory for continuous beams and is based on measuring the signal from a liquid ionization chamber and an air filled monitor ionization chamber at two different dose rates. The method has been tested with two plane parallel liquid ionization chambers in a continuous radiation x-ray beam with a tube voltage of 120 kV and with dose rates between 2 and 13 Gy min-1. The liquids used as sensitive media in the chambers were isooctane (C8H18) and tetramethylsilane (Si(CH3)4). The general recombination effect was studied using chamber polarizing voltages of 100, 300, 500, 700 and 900 V for both liquids. The relative standard deviation of the results for the collection efficiency with respect to general recombination was found to be a maximum of 0.7 % for isooctance and 2.4 % for tetramethylsilane. The results are in excellent agreement with Greening's theory for collection efficiencies over 90 %. The measured and corrected signals from the liquid ionization chambers used in this work are in very good agreement with the air filled monitor chambers with respect to signal to dose linearity.
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| 6. |
- Andersson, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Improved estimates of the radiation absorbed dose to the urinary bladder wall
- 2014
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 59:9, s. 2173-2182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Specific absorbed fractions (SAFs) have been calculated as a function of the content in the urinary bladder in order to allow more realistic calculations of the absorbed dose to the bladder wall. The SAFs were calculated using the urinary bladder anatomy from the ICRP male and female adult reference computational phantoms. The urinary bladder and its content were approximated by a sphere with a wall of constant mass, where the thickness of the wall depended on the amount of urine in the bladder. SAFs were calculated for males and females with 17 different urinary bladder volumes from 10 to 800 mL, using the Monte Carlo computer program MCNP5, at 25 energies of mono-energetic photons and electrons ranging from 10 KeV to 10 MeV. The decay was assumed to be homogeneously distributed in the urinary bladder content and the urinary bladder wall, and the mean absorbed dose to the urinary bladder wall was calculated. The Monte Carlo simulations were validated against measurements made with thermoluminescent dosimeters. The SAFs obtained for a urine volume of 200 mL were compared to the values calculated for the urinary bladder wall using the adult reference computational phantoms. The mean absorbed dose to the urinary wall from F-18-FDG was found to be 77 mu Gy/MBq formales and 86 mu Gy/MBq for females, while for (99)mTc-DTPA the mean absorbed doses were 80 mu Gy/MBq for males and 86 mu Gy/MBq for females. Compared to calculations using a constant value of the SAF from the adult reference computational phantoms, the mean absorbed doses to the bladder wall were 60% higher for F-18-FDG and 30% higher for (99)mTc-DTPA using the new SAFs.
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| 7. |
- Andisheh, Bahram, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Vascular structure and binomial statistics for response modeling in radiosurgery of cerebral arteriovenous malformations
- 2010
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 55:7, s. 2057-2067
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Radiation treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) has a slow and progressive vaso-occlusive effect. Some studies suggested the possible role of vascular structure in this process. A detailed biomathematical model has been used, where the morphological, biophysical and hemodynamic characteristics of intracranial AVM vessels are faithfully reproduced. The effect of radiation on plexiform and fistulous AVM nidus vessels was simulated using this theoretical model. The similarities between vascular and electrical networks were used to construct this biomathematical AVM model and provide an accurate rendering of transnidal and intranidal hemodynamics. The response of different vessels to radiation and their obliteration probability as a function of different angiostructures were simulated and total obliteration was defined as the probability of obliteration of all possible vascular pathways. The dose response of the whole AVM is observed to depend on the vascular structure of the intra-nidus AVM. Furthermore, a plexiform AVM appears to be more prone to obliteration compared with an AVM of the same size but having more arteriovenous fistulas. Finally, a binomial model was introduced, which considers the number of crucial vessels and is able to predict the dose response behavior of AVMs with a complex vascular structure.
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| 8. |
- Andreo, Pedro, et al.
(författare)
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Consistency in reference radiotherapy dosimetry : resolution of an apparent conundrum when Co-60 is the reference quality for charged-particle and photon beams
- 2013
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 58:19, s. 6593-6621
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Substantial changes in ion chamber perturbation correction factors in Co-60 gamma-rays, suggested by recent Monte Carlo (MC) calculations, would cause a decrease of about 1.5% in the reference dosimetry of all types of charged particles (electrons, protons and heavier ions) based on calculated k(Q) values. It has gone largely unnoticed that the ratio of calibration coefficients N-D,N-w,N-Co60 and N-K,N-air,N-Co60 yields an experimental value of F-ch,F-Co60 = (s(w-air) pch)(Co60) through N-D,N-air,N-Co60. Coefficients provided by the IAEA and traceable to the BIPM for 91 NE-2571 chambers result in an average F-ch,F-Co60 which is compared with published (and new) MC simulations and with the value in IAEA TRS-398. It is shown that TRS-398 agrees within 0.12% with the experimental F-ch,F-Co60. The 1.5% difference resulting from MC calculations (1.1% for the new simulations) cannot be justified using current fundamental data and BIPM standards if consistency in the entire dosimetry chain is sought. For photons, MC k(Q) factors are compared with TRS-398. Using the same uncertainty for W-air, the two sets of data overlap considerably. Experimental k(Q) values from standards laboratories lie between the two sets of calculated values, showing no preference for one set over the other. Observed chamber-to-chamber differences, that include the effect of waterproof sleeves (also seen for Co-60), justify the recommendation in TRS-398 for k(Q) values specifically measured for the user chamber. Current developments on I-values for the stopping powers of water and graphite are presented. A weighted average I-water = 78 +/- 2 eV is obtained from published experimental and DRF-based values; this would decrease sw-air for all types of radiotherapy beams between 0.3% and 0.6%, and would consequently decrease the MC derived F-ch,F-Co60. The implications of a recent proposal for I-graphite = 81 eV are analysed, resulting in a potential decrease of 0.7% in N-K,N-air,N-Co60 which would raise the experimental F-ch,F-Co60; this would result in an increase of about 0.8% in the current TRS-398 value when referred to the BIPM standards. MC derived F-ch,F-Co60 using new stopping powers would then agree at a level of 0.1% with the experimental value, confirming the need for consistency in the dosimetry chain data. Should world average standards be used as reference, the figures would become +0.4% for TRS-398 and -0.3% for the MC calculation. F-ch,F-Q calculated for megavoltage photons using new stopping powers would decrease by between 0.2% and 0.5%. When they enter as a ratios in k(Q), differences with MC values based on current key data would be within 0.2% but their discrepancy with k(Q) experimental photon values remains unresolved. For protons the new data would require an increase in W-air,W-Q of about 0.6%, as this is inferred from a combination of calorimetry and ionometry. This consistent scenario would leave unchanged the current TRS-398 k(Q) (NE-2571) data for protons, as well as for ions heavier than protons unless new independent W-air,W-Q values become available. Also in these advanced radiotherapy modalities, the need for maintaining data consistency in an analysis that unavoidably must include the complete dosimetry chain is demonstrated.
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| 9. |
- Andreo, Pedro
(författare)
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On the p(dis) correction factor for cylindrical chambers
- 2010
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 55:5, s. l9-L16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The authors of a recent paper (Wang and Rogers 2009 Phys. Med. Biol. 54 1609) have used the Monte Carlo method to simulate the 'classical' experiment made more than 30 years ago by Johansson et al (1978 National and International Standardization of Radiation Dosimetry (Atlanta 1977) vol 2 (Vienna: IAEA) pp 243-70) on the displacement (or replacement) perturbation correction factor p(dis) for cylindrical chambers in Co-60 and high-energy photon beams. They conclude that an 'unreasonable normalization at dmax' of the ionization chambers response led to incorrect results, and for the IAEA TRS-398 Code of Practice, which uses ratios of those results, 'the difference in the correction factors can lead to a beam calibration deviation of more than 0.5% for Farmer-like chambers'. The present work critically examines and questions some of the claims and generalized conclusions of the paper. It is demonstrated that for real, commercial Farmer-like chambers, the possible deviations in absorbed dose would be much smaller (typically 0.13%) than those stated by Wang and Rogers, making the impact of their proposed values negligible on practical high-energy photon dosimetry. Differences of the order of 0.4% would only appear at the upper extreme of the energies potentially available for clinical use (around 25 MV) and, because lower energies are more frequently used, the number of radiotherapy photon beams for which the deviations would be larger than say 0.2% is extremely small. This work also raises concerns on the proposed value of p(dis) for Farmer chambers at the reference quality of Co-60 in relation to their impact on electron beam dosimetry, both for direct dose determination using these chambers and for the cross-calibration of plane-parallel chambers. The proposed increase of about 1% in p(dis) (compared with TRS-398) would lower the k(Q) factors and therefore D-w in electron beams by the same amount. This would yield a severe discrepancy with the current good agreement between electron dosimetry based on an electron cross-calibrated plane-parallel chamber (against a Farmer) or on a directly Co-60 calibrated plane-parallel chamber, which is not likely to be in error by 1%. It is suggested that the influence of the Co-60 source spectrum used in the simulations may not be negligible for calculations aimed at an uncertainty level of 0.1%.
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| 10. |
- Andreo, Pedro, et al.
(författare)
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On the uncertainties of photon mass energy-absorption coefficients and their ratios for radiation dosimetry
- 2012
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Ingår i: Physics in Medicine and Biology. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9155 .- 1361-6560. ; 57:8, s. 2117-2136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A systematic analysis of the available data has been carried out for mass energy-absorption coefficients and their ratios for air, graphite and water for photon energies between 1 keV and 2 MeV, using representative kilovoltage x-ray spectra for mammography and diagnostic radiology below 100 kV, and for Ir-192 and Co-60 gamma-ray spectra. The aim of this work was to establish 'an envelope of uncertainty' based on the spread of the available data. Type A uncertainties were determined from the results of Monte Carlo (MC) calculations with the PENELOPE and EGSnrc systems, yielding mean values for mu(en)/rho with a given statistical standard uncertainty. Type B estimates were based on two groupings. The first grouping consisted of MC calculations based on a similar implementation but using different data and/or approximations. The second grouping was formed by various datasets, obtained by different authors or methods using the same or different basic data, and with different implementations (analytical, MC-based, or a combination of the two); these datasets were the compilations of NIST, Hubbell, Johns-Cunningham, Attix and Higgins, plus MC calculations with PENELOPE and EGSnrc. The combined standard uncertainty, u(c), for the mu(en)/rho values for the mammography x-ray spectra is 2.5%, decreasing gradually to 1.6% for kilovoltage x-ray spectra up to 100 kV. For Co-60 and Ir-192, u(c) is approximately 0.1%. The Type B uncertainty analysis for the ratios of mu(en)/rho values includes four methods of analysis and concludes that for the present data the assumption that the data interval represents 95% confidence limits is a good compromise. For the mammography x-ray spectra, the combined standard uncertainties of (mu(en)/rho)(graphite,air) and (mu(en)/rho)(graphite,water) are 1.5%, and 0.5% for (mu(en)/rho)(water,air), decreasing gradually down to u(c) = 0.1% for the three mu(en)/rho ratios for the gamma-ray spectra. The present estimates are shown to coincide well with those of Hubbell (1977 Rad. Res. 70 58-81), except for the lowest energy range (radiodiagnostic) where it is concluded that current databases and their systematic analysis represent an improvement over the older Hubbell estimations. The results for (mu(en)/rho)(graphite,air) for the gamma-ray dosimetry range are moderately higher than those of Seltzer and Bergstrom (2005 private communication).
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