• Journal of Korean Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 1979

The utilization of x-ray for diagnosis and examination is increasing by about 5-15% every year, therefore, it would be mandatory to protect the patients from exposures and so, studies in this field are performed even now. In dental field, the area of irradiation is limited any to the head and neck area, but the irradiated angle is varied following the objected tooth, so the adjacent structures lens and thyroid gland would be fragile to radiation. And the scattered radiation is one of the complicated problems in the protection because of specificity of dental x-ray and its object structures. The author, by using TLD (Thermo luminescent Dosimeter; Teledyne Isotopes-Model 7300, Element; TLD 200(CaF₂:Dy) and Capintec(Capintec Model 192, PM-30 Diagnostic chamber 28㎖ active volume), tried a measurement of air dose distribution of the scattered radiation and the irradiated dose of lens and thyroid gland under the condition of taking the film on the left maxillary molar. The results were as follows: 1. The half value layer of adapted dental x-ray machine was measured, and is 1.44㎜ Al. 2. The time of irradiation on the left maxillary molar in the Alderson Rando Phantom, the measured doses of left and right lens, and thyroid gland were 8,9mR, 1,2mR and 2,8mR. Under the same conditions, the scattered radiation at the distance of 1 meter from the phantom were 84 μR at the front side, 11μR at the back side, 18μR at the right side and 72μR at the left side. 3. Under the same conditions, the dose showed higher value by about 5% in the presence of object(phantom) than in the case of absence.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.211-216
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of a newly fusion model designed cloak shield to reduce the radiation exposure of the assistant during CT(computed tomography) of severely injured patient. Radiation dose was measured in the heart, both axillary and thyroid areas using newly designed cloak shield and existing shield with head phantom and human phantom under the same conditions as brain vascular CT scan. The newly designed cloak shield was measured higher for radiation shielding rate than the existing shields, 61.9 % for heart, 46.2 % for left axillary, 69.8 % for right axillary and 71.1 % for thyroid gland, respectively. a newly developed fusion model of cloak shields are useful for reducing radiation exposure. It is expected to make a significant contribution to reduction of radiation exposure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.525-532
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• 2016

High-energy linear accelerators are increasingly used in the medical field. However, the unwanted photo-neutrons can also be contributed to the dose delivered to the patients during their treatments. In this study, neutron fluxes were measured in a solid water phantom placed at the isocenter 1-m distance from the head of an18-MV linac using the foil activation method. The produced activities were measured with a calibrated well-type Ge detector. From the measured fluxes, the total neutron fluence was found to be $(1.17{\pm}0.06){\times}10^7n/cm^2$ per Gy at the phantom surface in a $20{\times}20cm^2$ X-ray field size. The maximum photo-neutron dose was measured to be $0.67{\pm}0.04$ mSv/Gy at $d_{max}=5cm$ depth in the phantom at isocenter. The present results are compared with those obtained for different field sizes of $10{\times}10cm^2$, $15{\times}15cm^2$, and $20{\times}20cm^2$ from 10-, 15-, and 18-MV linacs. Additionally, ambient neutron dose equivalents were determined at different locations in the room and they were found to be negligibly low. The results indicate that the photo-neutron dose at the patient position is not a negligible fraction of the therapeutic photon dose. Thus, there is a need for reduction of the contaminated neutron dose by taking some additional measures, for instance, neutron absorbing-protective materials might be used as aprons during the treatment.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2021

Purpose: Kilovoltage computed tomography (kV-CT) is essential for radiation treatment planning. However, kV-CT images are significantly distorted by artifacts when a metallic prosthesis is present in the patient's body. Thus, the accuracies of target delineation and treatment dose calculation are inevitably lowered. We evaluated the accuracy of the calculated doses using an image restoration method with hybrid CT, which was introduced in our previous study. Methods: A cylindrical phantom containing four metals, namely, silver, copper, tin, and tungsten, was scanned using kV-CT and megavoltage CT to produce hybrid CT images. We created six verification plans for three head and neck patients on kV-CT and hybrid CT images of the phantom and calculated their doses. The actual doses were measured with film patches during beam delivery using tomotherapy. We used the gamma evaluation method to compare dose distribution between kV-CT and hybrid CT with three gamma criteria, namely, 3%/3 mm, 2%/2 mm, and 1%/1 mm. Results: The gamma pass rates decreased as the gamma criteria were strengthened, and the pass rate of hybrid CT was higher than that of kV-CT in all cases. When the 1%/1 mm criterion was used, the difference in gamma pass rates between them was up to 13%p. Conclusions: According to our findings, we expect that the use of hybrid CT can be a suitable approach to avoid the effect of severe metal artifacts on the accuracy of dose calculation and contouring.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.367-373
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• 2021

A quality assurance of computed tomography(CT) have done seven items that were water attenuation coefficient, noise, homogeneity, spatial resolution, contrast resolution, slice thickness, artifact using by standard phantom. But there is no quality assurance items and methods for CT simulator at domestic institutions yet. Therefore the study aimed to access the CT dose index(CTDI), table tilting, image distortion, laser accuracy, table movement accuracy and CT seven items for CT simulator quality assurance. The CTDI at the center of the head phantom was 0.81 for 80 kVp, 1.55 for 100 kVp, 2.50 for 120 mm, 0.22 for 80 kVp at the center of the body phantom, 0.469 for 100 kVp, and 0.81 for 120 kVp. The table tilting was within the tolerance range of ±1.0° or less. Image distortion had 1 mm distortion in the left and right images based on the center, and the laser accuracy was measured within ±2 mm tolerance. The purpose of this study is to improve the quality assurance items suitable for the current situation in Korea in order to protect the normal tissues during the radiation treatment process and manage the CT simulator that is implemented to find the location of the tumor more clearly. In order to improve the accuracy of the CT simulator when looking at the results, the error range of each item should be small. It is hoped that the quality assurance items of the CT simulator will be improved by suggesting the quality assurance direction of the CT simulator in this study, and the results of radiation therapy will also improve.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.443-450
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• 2018

The Geant 4 simulated the linear accelerator (VARIAN CLINAC) based on the previously implemented BEAMnrC data, using the head structure of the linear accelerator. In the 10 MV photon flux, Geant4 was compared with the measured value of the percentage of the deep dose and the lateral dose of the water phantom. In order to apply the dose calculation to the body part, the actual patient's lung area was scanned at 5 mm intervals. Geant4 dose distributions were obtained by irradiating 10 MV photons at the irradiation field ($5{\times}5cm^2$) and SAD 100 cm of the water phantom. This result is difficult to measure the dose absorbed in the actual lung of the patient so the doses by the treatment planning system were compared. The deep dose curve measured by water phantom and the deep dose curve calculated by Geant4 were well within ${\pm}3%$ of most depths except the build-up area. However, at the 5 cm and 20 cm sites, 2.95% and 2.87% were somewhat higher in the calculation of the dose using Geant4. These two points were confirmed by the geometry file of Genat4, and it was found that the dose was increased because thoracic spine and sternum were located. In cone beam CT, the dose distribution error of the lungs was similar within 3%. Therefore, if the contour map of the dose can be directly expressed in the DICOM file when calculating the dose using Geant4, the clinical application of Geant4 will be used variously.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.216-224
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• 2009

$^{131}I$ is a radiological isotope being used widely for treatment of cancer as emitting gamma-ray and it is also applied to estimate the function of thyroid for its accumulation in thyroid. However, $^{131}I$ is more difficult to quantitate comapred to $^{99m}Tc$, because $^{131}I$ has multiple energy gamma-ray emissions compared to $^{99m}Tc$ which is a mono energetic gamma-ray source. Especially, scattered ray and septal penetration resulted by high energy gamma ray have a bad influence upon nuclear medicine image. The purpose of this study was to estimate scatter components depending on the different source locations within a phantom using Monte Carlo simulation (GATE). The simulation results were validated by comparing with the results of real experiments. Dual-head gamma camera (ECAM, Chicago, Illinois Siemens) with high energy, general-purpose, and parallel hole collimators (hole radius: 0.17 cm, septal thickness: 0.2 cm, length: 5.08 cm) was used in this experiment. The NaI crystal is $44.5{\times}59.1\;cm$ in height and width and 0.95 cm in thickness. The diameter and height of PMMA phantom were 16 cm and 15 cm, respectively. The images were acquired at 5 different locations of $^{131}I$ point source within the phantom and the images of $^{99m}Tc$ were also acquired for comparison purpose with low energy source. The simulation results indicated that the scattering was influenced by the location of source within a phantom. The scattering effects showed the same tendency in both simulation and actual experiment, and the results showed that the simulation was very adequate for further studies. The results supported that the simulation techniques may be used to generalize the scattering effects as a function of a point source location within a phantom.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2002

High energy photon beams from medical linear accelerators produce large scattered radiation by various components of the treatment head, collimator and walls or objects in the treatment room including the patient. These scattered radiation do not provide therapeutic dose and are considered a hazard from the radiation safety perspective. Scattered dose of therapeutic high energy radiation beams are contributed significant unwanted dose to the patient. ICRP take the position that a dose of 500mGy may cause abortion at any stage of pregnancy and that radiation detriment to the fetus includes risk of mental retardation with a possible threshold in the dose response relationship around 100 mGy for the gestational period. The ICRP principle of as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) was recommended for protection of occupation upon the linear no-threshold dose response hypothesis for cancer induction. We suggest this ALARA principle be applied to the fetus and testicle in therapeutic treatment. Radiation dose outside a photon treatment filed is mostly due to scattered photons. This scattered dose is a function of the distance from the beam edge, treatment geometry, primary photon energy, and depth in the patient. The need for effective shielding of the fetus and testicle is reinforced when young patients ate treated with external beam radiation therapy and then shielding designed to reduce the scattered photon dose to normal organs have to considered. Irradiation was performed in phantom using high energy photon beams produced by a Varian 2100C/D medical linear accelerator (Varian Oncology Systems, Palo Alto, CA) located at the Yonsei Cancer Center. The composite phantom used was comprised of a commercially available anthropomorphic Rando phantom (Phantom Laboratory Inc., Salem, YN) and a rectangular solid polystyrene phantom of dimensions $30cm{\times}30cm{\times}20cm$. the anthropomorphic Rando phantom represents an average man made from tissue equivalent materials that is transected into transverse 36 slices of 2.5cm thickness. Photon dose was measured using a Capintec PR-06C ionization chamber with Capintec 192 electrometer (Capintec Inc., Ramsey, NJ), TLD( VICTOREEN 5000. LiF) and film dosimetry V-Omat, Kodak). In case of fetus, the dosimeter was placed at a depth of loom in this phantom at 100cm source to axis distance and located centrally 15cm from the inferior edge of the $30cm{\times}30cm^2$ x-ray beam irradiating the Rando phantom chest wall. A acryl bridge of size $40cm{\times}40cm^2$ and a clear space of about 20 cm was fabricated and placed on top of the rectangular polystyrene phantom representing the abdomen of the patient. The leaf pot for testicle shielding was made as various shape, sizes, thickness and supporting stand. The scattered photon with and without shielding were measured at the representative position of the fetus and testicle. Measurement of radiation scattered dose outside fields and critical organs, like fetus position and testicle region, from chest or pelvic irradiation by large fie]d of high energy radiation beam was performed using an ionization chamber and film dosimetry. The scattered doses outside field were measured 5 - 10% of maximum doses in fields and exponentially decrease from field margins. The scattered photon dose received the fetus and testicle from thorax field irradiation was measured about 1 mGy/Gy of photon treatment dose. Shielding construction to reduce this scattered dose was investigated using lead sheet and blocks. Lead pot shield for testicle reduced the scatter dose under 10 mGy when photon beam of 60 Gy was irradiated in abdomen region. The scattered photon dose is reduced when the lead shield was used while the no significant reduction of scattered photon dose was observed and 2-3 mm lead sheets refuted the skin dose under 80% and almost electron contamination. The results indicate that it was possible to improve shielding to reduce scattered photon for fetus and testicle when a young patients were treated with a high energy photon beam.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.105-116
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• 2011

In this study, we present the measurements of effective dose from CT of head & neck region. A series of dose measurements in anthropomorphic Rando phantom was conducted using a radio photoluminescent glass rod dosimeter to evaluate effective doses of organs of head and neck region from the patient. The experiments were performed with respect to four anatomic regions of head & neck: optic nerve, pons, cerebellum, and thyroid gland. The head & neck CT protocol was used in the single scan (Brain, 3D Facial, Temporal, Brain Angiography and 3D Cervical Spine) and the multiple scan (Brain+Brain Angiography, Brain+3D Facial, Brain+Temporal, Brain+3D Cervical spine, Brain+3D Facial+Temporal, Brain+3D Cervical Spine+Brain Angiography). The largest effective dose was measured at optic nerve in Brain CT and Brain Angiography. The largest effective dose was delivered to the thyroid grand in 3D faical CT and 3D cervical spine, and to the pons in Temporal CT. In multiple scans, the higher effective dose was measured in the thyroid grand in Brain+3D Facial, Brain+3D Cervical Spine, Brain+3D Facial+Temporal and Brain+3D Cervical Spine+Brain Angiography. In addition, the largest effective dose was delivered to the cerebellum in Brain CT+Brain Angiography CT and higher effective dose was delivered to the pons in Brain+Temporal CT. The results indicate that in multiple scan of Brain+3D Cervical Spine+Brain Angiography, effective dose was 2.52 mSv. This is significantly higher dose than the limitation of annual effective dose of 1 mSv. The effective dose to the optic nerve was 0.31 mSv in Brain CT, which shows a possibility of surpassing the limitation of 1 mSv by furthre examination. Therefore, special efforts should be made in clinical practice to reduce dose to the patients.

• Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.176-182
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• 2015

Head-and-neck cancer is often treated with intensive irradiation focused on the tumor, while delivering the minimum amount of irradiation to normal cells. Since a course of radiotherapy can take 5-6 weeks or more, the repeatability of the patient posture and the fastening method during treatment are important determinants of the success of radiotherapy. Many devices have been developed to minimize positional discrepancies, but all of the commercial devices used in clinical practice are operated manually and require customized fixtures for each patient. This is inefficient and the performance of the fixture device depends on the operator's skill. Therefore, this study developed an automated head-and-neck immobilizer that can be used during radiotherapy and evaluated the positioning reproducibility in a phantom experiment. To eliminate interference caused by the magnetic field from computed tomography hardware, Ni-Ti shape-memory alloy wires were used as the actuating elements of the fixtures. The resulting positional discrepancy was less than 5 mm for all positions, which is acceptable for radiotherapy.