Improvement of I′mRT MatriXX in terms of spatial resolution and large area acquisition for patient-specific intensity-modulated radiotherapy verification

Abstract

2D array of ionization chambers can be used for both absolute and relative dose verification of patient-specific intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) quality assurance. After an analysis of the dose linearity and spatial resolution of this 2D array (I′mRT MatriXX), the signal sampling time of 200 ms was selected for data acquisition. Multiple-sequence acquisitions at the nearest 4 positions with the shift of half of the distance between the centers of two adjacent ion chambers increase the spatial resolution up to four times when used with this I′mRT MatriXX. IMRT verification of head-and-neck case, which requires a large area for dosimetric verification, can be done with limited size of 24x24 cm 2 , depending on the user requirements. It is found that the convolution method can also be used to improve the IMRT dose verification with the same parameters of the passing criteria significantly, viz., up to 99.87% agreement, by smoothening the treatment planning system profile.

Keywords

• 2D array ion chambers
• convolution
• intensity-modulated radiotherapy
• multiple-sequence acquisition