• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2019

Purpose: To report the initial experience of patient-specific quality assurance (pQA) for the wobbling and line-scanning proton therapy at Samsung Medical Center. Materials and Methods: The pQA results of 89 wobbling treatments with 227 fields and 44 line-scanning treatments with 118 fields were analyzed from December 2015 to June 2016. For the wobbling method, proton range and spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) width were verified. For the line-scanning method, output and two-dimensional dose distribution at multiple depths were verified by gamma analysis with 3%/3 mm criterion. Results: The average range difference was -0.44 mm with a standard deviation (SD) of 1.64 mm and 0.1 mm with an SD of 0.53 mm for the small and middle wobbling radii, respectively. For the line-scanning method, the output difference was within ${\pm}3%$. The gamma passing rates were over 95% with 3%/3 mm criterion for all depths. Conclusions: For the wobbling method, proton range and SOBP width were within the tolerance levels. For the line-scanning method, the output and two-dimensional dose distribution showed excellent agreement with the treatment plans.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2013

Purpose: Replacing the film which used to be used for checking the set-up of the patient and dosimetry during radiation therapy, more and more EPID equipped devices are in use at present. Accordingly, this article tried to evaluated the accuracy of the position check-up and the usefulness of dosimetry during the use of an electronic portal imaging device. Materials and Methods: On 50 materials acquired with the search of Korea Society Radiotherapeutic Technology, The Korean Society for Radiation Oncology, and Pubmed using "EPID", "Portal dosimetry", "Portal image", "Dose verification", "Quality control", "Cine mode", "Quality - assurance", and "In vivo dosimetry" as indexes, the usefulness of EPID was analyzed by classifying them as history of EPID and dosimetry, set-up verification and characteristics of EPID. Results: EPID is developed from the first generation of Liquid-filled ionization chamber, through the second generation of Camera-based fluoroscopy, and to the third generation of Amorphous-silicon EPID imaging modes can be divided into EPID mode, Cine mode and Integrated mode. When evaluating absolute dose accuracy of films and EPID, it was found that EPID showed within 1% and EDR2 film showed within 3% errors. It was confirmed that EPID is better in error measurement accuracy than film. When gamma analyzing the dose distribution of the base exposure plane which was calculated from therapy planning system, and planes calculated by EDR2 film and EPID, both film and EPID showed less than 2% of pixels which exceeded 1 at gamma values (r%>1) with in the thresholds such as 3%/3 mm and 2%/2 mm respectively. For the time needed for full course QA in IMRT to compare loads, EDR2 film recorded approximately 110 minutes, and EPID recorded approximately 55 minutes. Conclusion: EPID could easily replace conventional complicated and troublesome film and ionization chamber which used to be used for dosimetry and set-up verification, and it was proved to be very efficient and accurate dosimetry device in quality assurance of IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy). As cine mode imaging using EPID allows locating tumors in real-time without additional dose in lung and liver which are mobile according to movements of diaphragm and in rectal cancer patients who have unstable position, it may help to implement the most optimal radiotherapy for patients.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.365-374
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• 2015

The regular quality assurance (RQA) of X-ray images is essential for maintaining a high accuracy of diagnosis. This study was to evaluate the modulation transfer function (MTF), the noise power spectrum (NPS), and the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) of a computed radiography (CR) system for various periods of use from 2006 to 2015. We measured the pre-sampling MTF using the edge method and RQA 5 based on commission standard international electro-technical commission (IEC). The spatial frequencies corresponding to the 50% MTF for the CR systems in 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 were 1.54, 1.14, 1.12, and $1.38mm^{-1}$, respectively and the10% MTF for 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2015 were 2.68, 2.44, 2.44, and $2.46mm^{-1}$, respectively. In the NPS results, the CR systems showed the best noise distribution in 2006, and with the quality of distributions in the order of 2015, 2009, and 2012. At peak DQE and DQE at $1mm^{-1}$, the CR systems showed the best efficiency in 2006, and showed better efficiency in order of 2015, 2009, and 2012. Because the eraser lamp in the CR systems was replaced, the image quality in 2015 was superior to those in 2009 and 2012. This study can be incorporated into used in clinical QA requiring performance and evaluation of the performance of the CR systems.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.42-46
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to perform a survey of the radiation shielding design goals (P) and workload (W) based on the radiation safety reports concerned with structural shielding design for the IMRT treatment technique in Tomotherapy vaults. The values of the P and W factors as well as of a verified concrete thickness of the ceiling, bottom, sidewalls (sidewall-1 and sidewall-2), and door have been obtained from radiation safety reports for a total of 16 out of 20 vaults. The recommended and most widely used report for P values was the NCRP No. 151 report, which stated that the P factor in controlled and uncontrolled areas was 0.1 and 0.02 mSv/week, respectively. The range of the W factor was 600~14,720 Gy/week. The absorbed dose delivered per patient was 2~3 Gy. The maximum number of patients treated per day was 10~70. The quality assurance (QA) dose was 100~1,000 Gy/week. Fifteen values of the IMRT factor (F) were mostly used but a maximum of 20 values was also used. The concrete thickness for primary structures including the ceiling, bottom, sidewalls, and door was sufficient for radiation shielding. The P and W factors affect the calculation of the structural shielding design, and several parameters, such as the absorbed dose, patients, QA dose, days and F factor can be varied according to the type of shielding structure. To ensure the safety of the radiation shielding, it is necessary to use the NCRP No. 151 report for the standard recommendation values.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.112-119
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• 2019

Purpose: The advantages of ocular proton therapy are that it spares the optic nerve and delivers the minimal dose to normal surrounding tissues. In this study, it developed a solid eye phantom that enabled us to perform quality assurance (QA) to verify the dose and beam range for passive single scattering proton therapy using a single phantom. For this purpose, a new solid eye phantom with a polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) wedge was developed using film dosimetry and an ionization chamber. Methods: The typical beam shape used for eye treatment is approximately 3 cm in diameter and the beam range is below 5 cm. Since proton therapy has a problem with beam range uncertainty due to differences in the stopping power of normal tissue, bone, air, etc, the beam range should be confirmed before treatment. A film can be placed on the slope of the phantom to evaluate the Spread-out Bragg Peak based on the water equivalent thickness value of PMMA on the film. In addition, an ionization chamber (Pin-point, PTW 31014) can be inserted into a hole in the phantom to measure the absolute dose. Results: The eye phantom was used for independent patient-specific QA. The differences in the output and beam range between the measurement and the planned treatment were less than 1.5% and 0.1 cm, respectively. Conclusions: An eye phantom was developed and the performance was successfully validated. The phantom can be employed to verify the output and beam range for ocular proton therapy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.138-140
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• 2002

The spinal cord dose is the one of the limiting factor for the radiation treatment of the head & neck (H&N) or the thorax region. Due to the fact that the cord is the elongated shaped structure, it is not an easy task to maintain the cord dose within the clinically acceptable dose range. To overcome this problem, the spinal cord partial block technique (PBT) with the dynamic Multi-Leaf Collimator (dMLC) has been developed. Three dimension (3D) conformal beam directions, which minimize the coverage of the normal organs such as the lung and the parotid gland, were chosen. The PBT field shape for each field was designed to shield the spinal cord with the dMLC. The transmission factors were determined by the forward calculation method. The plan comparisons between the conventional 3D conformal therapy plan and the PTB plan were performed to evaluate the validity of this technique. The conformity index (CI) and the dose volume histogram (DVH) were used as the plan comparison indices. A series of quality assurance (QA) was performed to guarantee the reliable treatment. The QA consisted of the film dosimetry for the verification of the dose distribution and the point measurements. The PBT plan always generated better results than the conventional 3D conformal plan. The PBT was proved to be useful for the H&N and thorax region.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.732-739
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• 2009

Flow phantom with stenosis was manufactured using an auto-injector to obtain angiostenotic flow information and quality assurance (QA) for ultrasound diagnostic instrumentation. Effectiveness of manufactured flow phantom with stenosis was investigated with power Doppler that was known to have diagnostic efficiency for angiostenosis. The flow phantom with stenosis was manufactured to 70% stenosis with 8 mm and 2.4 mm silicon tube, and silicone tube was covered with gelatin that has acoustic characteristics similar to soft tissue. When the linear transducer was used for measurement, the estimated diameter of normal vessel was measured lower than that of normal value, and the estimated diameter of stenosed vessel was measured higher than that of normal value. The measured parameters were not affected except for the radical conditions such as gain of 60%, PRF of 3000 Hz, use of maximal filter or angle. In addition, when the convex transducer was used for measurement, measurement parameters were affected by gain, PRF, filter, and angle. Therefore it is expected that flow phantom with stenosis manufactured with an auto-injector will be utilized effectively for QA of angiostenotic diagnosis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.565-569
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• 2016

Recently, a use of linear accelerator with a multi-leaf collimator(MLC) for radiation therapy is increasing. The importance of quality assurance (QA) for the linear accelerator is emphasized as the side effects of the inaccurate delivery of the radiation beam has been increased according to the high dose irradiation technique. In this study, The $HgI_2$ and $PbI_2$ photoconductor layer samples of $400{\mu}m$ thickness were fabricated using sedimentation method among particle-in-binder technology. From the fabricated samples, the electrical properties(dark current, output current, response properties and linearity) were investigated. From the experimental results, $HgI_2$ has good charge signal generation and linearity. Finally, from the signal response results about various thickness of $HgI_2$ sensor, the signal creation efficiency of $400{\mu}m$ thickness of $HgI_2$ sensor has the highest value and the excellent reproducibility below ${\pm}2.5%$.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.176-185
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• 2005

Purpose: Film dosimetry as a part of patient specific intensity modulated radiation therapy quality assurance (IMRT QA) was peformed to develop a new optimization method of film isocenter offset and to then suggest new quantitative criteria for film dosimetry. Materials and Methods: Film dosimetry was peformed on 14 IMRT patients with head and neck cancers. An optimization method for obtaining the local minimum was developed to adjust for the error in the film isocenter offset, which is the largest part of the systemic errors. Results: The adjust value of the film isocenter offset under optimization was 1 mm in 12 patients, while only two patients showed 2 mm translation. The means of absolute average dose difference before and after optimization were 2.36 and $1.56\%$, respectively, and the mean ratios over a $5\%$ tolerance were 9.67 and $2.88\%$. After optimization, the differences in the dose decreased dramatically. A low dose range cutoff (L-Cutoff) has been suggested for clinical application. New quantitative criteria of a ratio of over a $5\%$, but less than $10\%$ tolerance, and for an absolute average dose difference less than $3\%$ have been suggested for the verification of film dosimetry. Conclusion: The new optimization method was effective in adjusting for the film dosimetry error, and the newly quantitative criteria suggested in this research are believed to be sufficiently accurate and clinically useful.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.105-110
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• 2014

Diagnostic radiation equipment diagnosis and treatment of disease of recent plays a central role, but this is based on the assumption of an appropriate balance of benefits and risks of diagnostic. If balance is not maintained has the potential to give an adverse effect on the health of the public. In the case of an overseas, the importance of (QA) quality assurance of medical equipment is growing, but evaluation criteria of quality assurance has not been clearly presented in domestic. Therefore, the modernization of medical equipment from the point at which the degree of cycle-by-cycle management system of foreign national to be suitable for diagnostic radiation generator entry and quality control standards by introducing a tailoring is necessary. In this study the most frequently used diagnostic radiation generator X-ray imaging apparatus of the general three-year periodic inspections at any time between the periodic inspection items and quality control methods and standards for the establishment of the United States, Canada and abroad, and international electronic literature search Technical Committee (International Electro-technical Commission, IEC) were compared with the provisions of item. Based on the national quality control items when opening frequent inspection items and standards presented as a basis for setting up study.