Improvement of the sensitivity of PASSAG polymer gel dosimeter by urea

Abstract

The severe toxicity in compound of polymer gel dosimeters has been reported as one of their major limitations for utilization in clinical applications. Recently, PASSAG polymer gel dosimeter has been introduced as a safe polymer gel dosimeter. Despite the excellent dosimetric results reported for this gel dosimeter, its R2-dose sensitivity is relatively low. Therefore, the present study is aimed to improve the sensitivity of PASSAG gel dosimeter by adding urea to its structure. Moreover, it was tried to obtain the optimal amount of urea for the new gel dosimeter. After preparation of the PASSAG-U (PASSAG and Urea) gel dosimeters, they were irradiated using 6 MV photon energy and their responses were read by a 1.5 T MRI scanner. Then, the R2-dose response and the R2-dose sensitivity of the PASSAG-U gel dosimeters with various percentages of the urea were assessed at a 0–10 Gy dose range, various scanning temperatures (15–24 °C), and post irradiation times (1–30 days). The radiological properties of PASSAG-U gel dosimeters confirmed soft tissue and water equivalence of the new gel dosimeters. Compared to the PASSAG gel dosimeter, the R2-dose sensitivities of PASSAG-U gel dosimeters with 1%, 3%, and 5% urea were improved by 12.14%, 25.15%, and 27.90%, respectively. Although the addition of urea improves the R2-dose sensitivity of the gel dosimeter, it leads to the degradation of dose resolution (especially for 5% urea). Moreover, the dosimetric evaluation of characteristics related to the PASSAG-U gel dosimeters with various urea concentrations resulted to following conclusions: 1) the optimal amount of urea was determined 3%; 2) there was a stability in the R2 values for 18–22 °C scanning temperatures; 3) there was a temporal stability at the response of PASSAG-U gel dosimeters from 14 to 30 days after irradiation; 4) the R2-dose sensitivity of PASSAG-U gel dosimeters varied over post irradiation time.