• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.260-268
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• 2009

In this study, we estimated inhomogeneity correction factor in small field. And, we evaluated accuracy of treatment planning and measurement data which applied inhomogeneity correction factor or not. We developed the Inhomogeneity Correction Phantom (ICP) for insertion of inhomogeneity materials. The inhomogeneity materials were 12 types in each different electron density. This phantom is able to adapt the EBT film and 0.125 cc ion chamber for measurement of dose distribution and point dose. We evaluated comparison of planning and measurement data using ICP. When we applied to inhomogeneity correction factor or not, the average difference was 1.63% and 10.05% in each plan and film measurement data. And, the average difference of dose distribution was 10.09% in each measurement film. And the average difference of point dose was 0.43% and 2.09% in each plan and measurement data. In conclusion, if we did not apply the inhomogeneity correction factor in small field, it shows more great difference in measurement data. The planning system using this study shows good result for correction of inhomogeneity materials. In radiosurgery using small field, we should be correct the inhomogeneity correction factor, more exactly.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2010

Ionization chambers often exhibit a stem effect, caused by interactions of radiation with air near the chamber end, or with dielectric in the chamber stem or cable. In this study measured stem effect correction factor for length of ionization chamber from medical linear accelerator recommend to with the use of stem correction method. For a model of the Farmer-type chamber, were used to calculate the beam quality correction factor. These interactions contribute to the apparent measured exposure. Additionally, it needs to consider ionization chamber use of small volume and stem effect of cable by a large field. Linear accelerator generated photons energy and increased dose repeatedly measured by using stem correction method. Stem effect was dependence of the energy and increases with photon energy conditions improved of beam quality. In conclusion, stem effect correction factor was measured within 0.4% calculated according to the exposures stem length and also supposed to determined below 1% of another stem correction method.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.21-24
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• 1983

The thickness of the part being irradiated is finite. Percent depth dose tables being used routinely are generally obtained from dosimetry in a phantom much thickner than usual patient. At or close to exit surface, the dose should be less than that obtained from the percent depth dose tables, because of insufficient volume for backscattering. To know the difference between the true absorbed dose and the dose obtained from percent depth dose table, the doses at or close to the exit surface were measured with plate type ionization chamber with volume of 0.5ml. The results are as follows; 1. In the case of $^{60}Co$, percent depth dose at a given depth increases with underlying phantom thickness up to the 5cm. 2. In the case of $^{60}Co$, the dose correction factor at exit surface which is less than 1, increases with part thickness and decreases with field size. 3. Exposure time may not be corrected when the part above 10cm in thickness is treated by $^{60}Co$. 4. In the case of 10MV x-ray, the dose correction factor is nearly 1 and constant for the underlying phantom thickness and field size, so the correction of monitor unit is not necessary for part thickness.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2012

Objectives: This study developed a harmonized method for risk assessment based on the Hazard & Risk Evaluation of Chemicals (HREC) according to the Industrial Safety and Health Act (ISHA). Methods: Three preliminary studies, performed during 2010 and 2011 by the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute and three academic research groups, were compared. The differences in risk assessment, especially in the dose-response assessment method, were analyzed. A new harmonized method for dose-response assessment was suggested and its applicability for the HREC was examined. Results: Considering the various steps of each dose-response assessment, the equivalent steps in quantitative correction, uncertainty factor 2 (UF2) for intra-species uncertainty, and UF3 for the experimental period in the uncertainty correction were relatively high. Using our new method, the total correction values (quantitative correction plus uncertainty correction) ranged from 72~15,789 to 30~60, and the ratio of the threshold limit value (TLV) to the reference concentration decreased from 12.8~1900 to 5.4~11.8. Furthermore, when we performed risk characterization by our new method, hazard quotient (HQ) values for chloroethylene, epichlorohydrin, and barium sulfate became 3.0, 14.1, and 1.13 respectively, whereas three previous studies reported HQ values of 7.1, 4580, and 87.3 considering reasonable maximum exposure (RME) conditions. HQs of the three chemicals were calculated to be 0.6, 2.4, and 0.1 respectively, when compared to their TLVs. Conclusions: Our new method could be applicable for the HREC because the total correction values and the ratio of TLVs were within reasonable ranges. It is also recommended that additional risk management measures be applied for epichlorohydrin, for which the HQ values were greater than 1 when compared with both reference values and the TLV. Our proposed method could be used to harmonize dose-response assessment methods for the implementation of risk assessment based on the HREC according to ISHA.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.97-104
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• 2006

In recent years, the MOSFET dosimeter has been widely used in various medical applications such as dose verification in radiation therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The MOSFET dosimeter is, however, mainly made of silicon and shows some energy dependence for low energy Photons. Therefore, the MOSFET dosimeter tends to overestimate the dose for low energy scattered photons in a phantom. This study determines the correction factors to compensate these dependences of the MOSFET dosimeter in ATOM phantom. For this, we first constructed a computational model of the ATOM phantom based on the 3D CT image data of the phantom. The voxel phantom was then implemented in a Monte Carlo simulation code and used to calculate the energy spectrum of the photon field at each of the MOSFET dosimeter locations in the phantom. Finally, the correction factors were calculated based on the energy spectrum of the photon field at the dosimeter locations and the pre-determined energy and directional dependence of the MOSFET dosimeter. Our result for $^{60}Co$ and $^{137}Cs$ photon fields shows that the correction factors are distributed within the range of 0.89 and 0.97 considering all the MOSFET dosimeter locations in the phantom.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.111-121
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• 2017

Verification of dose distribution is an essential part of ensuring the treatment planning system's (TPS) calculated dose will achieve the desired outcome in radiation therapy. Each measurement have uncertainty associated with it. It is desirable to reduce the measurement uncertainty. A best approach is to reduce the uncertainty associated with each step of the process to keep the total uncertainty under acceptable limits. Point dose patient specific quality assurance (QA) is recommended by American Association of Medical Physicists (AAPM) and European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) for all the complex radiation therapy treatment techniques. Relative and absolute point dose measurement methods are used to verify the TPS computed dose. Relative and absolute point dose measurement techniques have a number of steps to measure the point dose which includes chamber cross calibration, electrometer reading, chamber calibration coefficient, beam quality correction factor, reference conditions, influences quantities, machine stability, nominal calibration factor (for relative method) and absolute dose calibration of machine. Keeping these parameters in mind, the estimated relative percentage uncertainty associated with the absolute point dose measurement is 2.1% (k=1). On the other hand, the relative percentage uncertainty associated with the relative point dose verification method is estimated to 1.0% (k=1). To compare both point dose measurement methods, 13 head and neck (H&N) IMRT patients were selected. A point dose for each patient was measured with both methods. The average percentage difference between TPS computed dose and measured absolute relative point dose was 1.4% and 1% respectively. The results of this comparative study show that while choosing the relative or absolute point dose measurement technique, both techniques can produce similar results for H&N IMRT treatment plans. There is no statistically significant difference between both point dose verification methods based upon the t-test for comparing two means.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 1999

We calculated the energy distribution and the percentage depth-dose at 10 cm in a $10{\times}10\;cm^2$ with a photon beam at SSD of 100 cm by using a Monte Carlo Simulation. PDD is used as a beam-quality specifier for radiotherapy beams. It is better than the commonly used values of TPR or nominal accelerating potential. The presence of electron contamination affects the measurement of PDD, but can be removed by the use of a 0.1 cm lead filter. It reduces surface dose from contaminant electrons from the accelerator by more than 90% for radiotherapy beams. The filter performs best when it is placed immediately below the head. An electron-contamination correction factor is introduced to correct for electron contamination from the filter and air. It converts PDD which includes the electron contamination with the filter in place into PDD for the photons in the filtered beam. The correction factor can be used to determine stopping-power ratio. Calculations show that the values of water-to-air slopping power ratio in the unfiltered beam are related to PDD.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.219-229
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• 2023

In this study, basic characteristics such as reproducibility, linearity, and directionality of RPL glass dosimeters were evaluated to improve the reliability of dose evaluation through RPL glass dosimeters, and uncertainty elements such as sensitivity by glass element and magazine slot sensitivity were evaluated. Using a mathematical model to calibrate the measured values of the RPL glass dosimeter, the measurement uncertainty was calculated assuming an example. As a result of the characteristic evaluation, the RPL glass dosimeter showed excellent performance with a standard deviation of ±1% (1 SD) for the reproducibility of the reading process, a coefficient of determination for linearity of 0.99997. And the read-out of the RPL glass dosimeter are affected by the circular rotation direction of the glass dosimeter during irradiation, fading according to the period after irradiation, the number of laser pulses of the reader, and response degradation due to repeated reading, it is judged that measurement uncertainty can be reduced by irradiation and reading in consideration of these factors. In addition, it was confirmed that the dose should be determined by calculating the correction factors for the sensitivity of each element and, the sensitivity of each reading magazine slot. It is believed that the reliability of dosimetry using glass dosimeters can be improved by using a mathematical model for correction of glass dosimeter readings and calculating measurement uncertainty.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2006

Purpose: In radiation therapy, precise calculation of dose toward malignant tumors or normal tissue would be a critical factor in determining whether the treatment would be successful. The Radiation Treatment Planning (RTP) system is one of most effective methods to make it effective to the correction of dose due to CT number through converting linear attenuation coefficient to density of the inhomogeneous tissue by means of CT based reconstruction. Materials and Methods: In this study, we carried out the measurement of CT number and calculation of mass density by using RTP system and the homemade inhomogeneous tissue Phantom and the values were obtained with reference to water. Moreover, we intended to investigate the effectiveness and accuracy for the correction of inhomogeneous tissue by the CT number through comparing the measured dose (nC) and calculated dose (Percentage Depth Dose, PDD) used CT image during radiation exposure with RTP. Results: The difference in mass density between the calculated tissue equivalent material and the true value was ranged from $0.005g/cm^3\;to\;0.069g/cm^3$. A relative error between PDD of RTP and calculated dose obtained by radiation therapy of machine ranged from -2.8 to +1.06%(effective range within 3%). Conclusion: In conclusion, we confirmed the effectiveness of correction for the inhomogeneous tissues through CT images. These results would be one of good information on the basic outline of Quality Assurance (QA) in RTP system.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.54-62
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• 2020

Dose calculation algorithms play an important role in radiation therapy and are even the basis for optimizing treatment plans, an important feature in the development of complex treatment technologies such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy. We reviewed the past and current status of dose calculation algorithms used in the treatment planning system for radiation therapy. The radiation-calculating dose calculation algorithm can be broadly classified into three main groups based on the mechanisms used: (1) factor-based, (2) model-based, and (3) principle-based. Factor-based algorithms are a type of empirical dose calculation that interpolates or extrapolates the dose in some basic measurements. Model-based algorithms, represented by the pencil beam convolution, analytical anisotropic, and collapse cone convolution algorithms, use a simplified physical process by using a convolution equation that convolutes the primary photon energy fluence with a kernel. Model-based algorithms allowing side scattering when beams are transmitted to the heterogeneous media provide more precise dose calculation results than correction-based algorithms. Principle-based algorithms, represented by Monte Carlo dose calculations, simulate all real physical processes involving beam particles during transportation; therefore, dose calculations are accurate but time consuming. For approximately 70 years, through the development of dose calculation algorithms and computing technology, the accuracy of dose calculation seems close to our clinical needs. Next-generation dose calculation algorithms are expected to include biologically equivalent doses or biologically effective doses, and doctors expect to be able to use them to improve the quality of treatment in the near future.