Acoustic images of gel dosimetry phantoms

Abstract

This work presents Vibro-acoustography (VA) as a tool to visualize absorbed dose in a polymer gel dosimetry phantom. VA relies on the mechanical excitation introduced by the acoustic radiation force of focused modulated ultrasound in a small region of the object. A hydrophone or microphone is used to measure the sound emitted from the object in response to the excitation, and by using the amplitude or phase of this signal, an image of the object can be generated. To study the phenomena of dose distribution in a gel dosimetry phantom, continuous wave (CW), tone burst and multi-frequency VA were used to image this phantom. The phantom was designed using ‘MAGIC’ gel polymer with addition of glass microspheres at 2% w/w having an average diameter range between 40–75 μm. The gel was irradiated using conventional 10 MeV X-rays from a linear accelerator. The field size in the surface of the phantom was 1.0×1.0 cm2 and a source-surface distance (SSD) of 100 cm. The irradiated volume corresponds to an approximately 8.0 cm3, where a dose of 50 gray was delivered to the gel. Polymer gel dosimeters are sensitive to radiation-induced chemical changes that occur in the irradiated polymer. VA images of the gel dosimeter showed the irradiate area. It is concluded that VA imaging has potential to visualize dose distribution in a polymer gel dosimeter.