Optical tomography for measuring dose distribution in radiation therapy

Abstract

The dosimetry is used to verify the dose magnitude with artificial samples (phantoms) before giving the planned radiation therapy to the patient. Typically, dose distribution is measured only in a single point or on a two-dimensional matrix plane. New techniques of radiation therapy ensure more detailed planning of radiation dose distribution which will lead to the need of measuring the radiation dose distribution three-dimensionally. The gel dosimetry is used to indicate and determine the ionizing radiation three-dimensionally. The radiation causes changes in chemical properties of the gel. The radiation dose distribution is defined by measuring the chemical changes. A conventional method is the magnetic resonance imaging and a new possibility is optical computed tomography (optical-CT). The optical-CT is much cheaper and more practical than magnetic resonance imaging. In this project, an optical-CT based method device was built by aiming at low material costs and a simple realization. The constructed device applies the charge coupled device camera and fluorescent lamp technologies. The test results show that the opacity level of the radiated gel can be measured accurately enough. The imaging accuracy is restricted by the optical distortion, e. g. vignetting, of the lenses, the distortion of a fluorescent lamp as the light source and a noisy measuring environment.

Keywords

• gel dosimetry
• measuring opacity
• optical-CT
• tomography
• verification of radiation therapy