Response verification of dose rate and time dependence of PAGAT polymer gel dosimeters by photon beams using magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate dependence of PAGAT polymer gel dosimeter 1/T2 on different post time imaging as well as on different mean dose rates for a standard clinically used Co-60 therapy unit and an electa linear accelerator. Using MRI, the formulation to give the maximum change in the transverse relaxation rate R2(1/T2) was determined to be 4.5% N,N'-methylen-bis-acrylamide(bis), 4.5% acrylamid(AA), 5% gelatine, 5 mM tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium chloride (THPC), 0.01 mM hydroquinone (HQ) and 86% HPLC(Water).When the preparation of final polymer gel solution is completed, it is transferred into phantoms and allowed to set by storage in a refrigerator at about 4°C. The sensitivity of the dosimeter was represented by the slope of calibration curve in the linear region measured for each modality. A calibration curve (in the linear region) based on 16 dosimeters (15 irradiated and one background) was obtained for 1.25 MV photon beam. To determine the calibration curve of the PAGAT polymer gel dosimeter, there are two linear responses between 2–10Gy and 10–30Gy and the R2-dose sensitivity showed stability with imaging post time after 38 days. Dose rate of dependence was studied in 6 MV photon beam with the use of dose rates 80, 160, 240, 320, 400 and 480 cGy/min. Evaluation of dosimeters were performed on Siemens Symphony, Germany 1.5T Scanner in the head coil. A multi echo sequence with 32 equidistant echoes was used for the evaluation of irradiated polymer gel dosimeters. The parameters of the sequence were as follows: TR 3000ms, TE 20ms, Slice Thickness 4 mm and FOV 256mm. No trend in polymer-gel dosimeter 1/T2 dependence was found on mean dose rate for photon beams.