Volume 23 (2017): Issue 3 (September 2017)

Patients undergoing computerized tomography (CT) scans for tumor localization and treatment planning are frequently scanned using pre-set customized exposure protocols for optimal imaging of different anatomical sites. The question arises if these scanning protocols will produce a deviation in the Hounsfield number for a given tissue that can afterwards be used to predict the resulting dose calculation deviation due to this. The question is also if the deviation in the Hounsfield number of a tissue is large enough to affect dose calculation clinically significant.

A study was devised in which a RMI phantom was scanned with five different scanning protocols and two CT beam energies at 120 and 135 kV. To assess the effect of insert configuration, Hounsfield number measurements were repeated for high density RMI inserts in the center and outer rings in the phantom. For each material insert the standard deviation of the Hounsfield number was calculated. To assist in dose prediction a series of DOSXYZnrc Monte Carlo calculations were carried out for beam qualities between 6 and 16 MV for a range of Hounsfield numbers calculated for bone and water. This provided information on how the depth dose varied as a function of Hounsfield number variation. Lastly, a series of treatment plans were setup for absorbed dose calculation using the RMI insert electron densities vs Hounsfield relations measured above. The absorbed dose of corresponding plans with the largest Hounsfield number variation were subtracted to find the dose discrepancies.

It was found that the dose discrepancies in tissue types could be indicated by the deviation of the Hounsfield number due to different scanning protocols. The calculated dose difference were in all cases within 3%.

The aim of this work is to characterize the ferrous sulfate-benzoic acid-xylenol orange (FBX) aqueous chemical dosimeter developed at our laboratory, prepared using ultra pure water, by measuring the absorption spectrum, dose response curve, precision and accuracy, energy and dose rate dependency and stability of response. The FBX readings were evaluated by using an accurate spectrophotometer. Experimental data were obtained using various nominal energies 6 MV, 18 MV, 12 MeV, and 15 MeV, including the ⁶⁰Co γ-rays beam. The calibration of the dosimeters was performed using the ionization chamber as a reference dosimeter. The results show that the FBX dosimeter has a good precision of about 0.2%, no significant energy, dose rate dependence and a linear dose-response relationship in the 1-5 Gy range.

In the current study the neutron and photon scattering properties of some newly developed high density concretes (HDCs) were calculated by using MCNPX Monte Carlo code. Five high-density concretes including Steel-Magnetite, Barite, Datolite-Galena, Ilmenite-ilmenite, Magnetite-Lead with the densities ranging from 5.11 g/cm³ and ordinary concrete with density of 2.3 g/cm³ were studied in our simulations. The photon beam spectra of 4 and 18 MV from Varian linac and neutron spectra of clinical 18 MeV photon beam was used for calculations. The fluence of scattered photon and neutron from all studied concretes was calculated in different angles. Overall, the ordinary concrete showed higher scattered photons and Datolite-Galena concrete (4.42 g/cm³) had the lowest scattered photons among all studied concretes. For neutron scattering, fluence at the angle of 180 was higher relative to other angles while for photons scattering fluence was maximum at 90 degree. The scattering fluence for photons and neutrons was dependent on the angle and composition of concrete. The results showed that the fluence of scattered photons and neutrons changes with the composition of high density concrete. Also, for high density concretes, the variation of scattered fluence with angle was very pronounced for neutrons but it changed slightly for photons. The results can be used for design of radiation therapy bunkers.

Introduction: The main purpose of this study was to investigate patient dose in pelvic and abdomen x-ray examinations. This work also provided the LDRLs (local diagnostic reference levels) in Khuzestan region, southwest of Iran to help establish the NDRLs (national diagnostic reference levels).

Methods: Patient doses were assessed from patient’s anatomical data and exposure parameters based on the IAEA indirect dosimetry method. With regard to this method, exposure parameters such as tube output, kVp, mAs, FFD and patient anatomical data were used for calculating ESD (entrance skin dose) of patients. This study was conducted on 250 standard patients (50% men and 50% women) at eight high-patient-load imaging centers.

Results: The results indicate that mean ESDs for the both pelvic and abdomen examinations were lower than the IAEA and EC reference levels, 2.3 and 3.7 mGy, respectively. Mean applied kVps were 67 and 70 and mean FFDs were 103 and 109, respectively. Tube loadings obtained in this study for pelvic examination were lower than all the corresponding values in the reviewed literature. Likewise, the average annual patient load across all hospitals were more than 37000 patients, i.e. more than 100 patients a day.

Conclusions: The authors recommend that DRLs (diagnostic reference levels) obtained in this region, which are the first available data, can be used as local DRLs for pelvic and abdomen procedures. This work also provides that on-the-job training programs for staffs and close cross collaboration between physicists and physicians should be strongly considered.

Purpose: It is well known that the main portion of artificial sources of ionizing radiation to human results from X-ray imaging techniques. However, reports carried out in various countries have indicated that most of their cumulative doses from artificial sources are due to CT examinations. Hence assessing doses resulted from CT examinations is highly recommended by national and international radiation protection agencies. The aim of this research has been to estimate the effective and organ doses in an average human according to 103 and 60 ICRP tissue weighting factor for six common protocols of Multi-Detector CT (MDCT) machine in a comprehensive training general hospital in Tehran/Iran.

Methods: To calculate the patients' effective dose, the CT-Expo2.2 software was used. Organs/tissues and effective doses were determined for about 20 patients (totally 122 patients) for every one of six typical CT protocols of the head, neck, chest, abdomen-pelvis, pelvis and spine exams. In addition, the CT dosimetry index (CTDI) was measured in the standard 16 and 32 cm phantoms by using a calibrated pencil ionization chamber for the six protocols and by taking the average value of CT scan parameters used in the hospital compared with the CTDI values displayed on the console device of the machine.

Results: The values of the effective dose based on the ICRP 103 tissue weighting factor were: 0.6, 2.0, 3.2, 4.2, 2.8, and 3.9 mSv and based on the ICRP 60 tissue weighting factor were: 0.9, 1.4, 3, 7.9, 4.8 and 5.1 mSv for the head, neck, chest, abdomen-pelvis, pelvis, spine CT exams respectively. Relative differences between those values were -22, 21, 23, -6, -31 and 16 percent for the head, neck, chest, abdomen-pelvis, pelvis, spine CT exams, respectively. The average value of CTDI_v calculated for each protocol was: 27.32 ± 0.9, 18.08 ± 2.0, 7.36 ± 2.6, 8.84 ± 1.7, 9.13 ± 1.5, 10.42 ± 0.8 mGy for the head, neck, chest, abdomen-pelvis and spine CT exams, respectively.

Conclusions: The highest organ doses delivered by various CT exams were received by brain (15.5 mSv), thyroid (19.00 mSv), lungs (9.3 mSv) and bladder (9.9 mSv), bladder (10.4 mSv), stomach (10.9 mSv) in the head, neck, chest, and the abdomen-pelvis, pelvis, and spine respectively. Except the neck and spine CT exams showing a higher effective dose compared to that reported in Netherlands, other exams indicated lower values compared to those reported by any other country.