Radiochromic Film Dosimetry System Research Articles

Reference radiochromic film dosimetry in kilovoltage photon beams during CBCT image acquisition

A common approach for dose assessment during cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) acquisition is to use thermoluminescent detectors for skin dose measurements (on patients or phantoms) or ionization chamber (in phantoms) for body dose measurements. However, the benefits of a daily CBCT image acquisition such as margin reduction in planning target volume and the image quality must be weighted against the extra dose received during CBCT acquisitions. The authors describe a two-dimensional reference dosimetry technique for measuring dose from CBCT scans using the on-board imaging system on a Varian Clinac-iX linear accelerator that employs the XR-QA radiochromic film model, specifically designed for dose measurements at low energy photons. The CBCT dose measurements were performed for three different body regions (head and neck, pelvis, and thorax) using humanoid Rando phantom. The authors report on both surface dose and dose profiles measurements during clinical CBCT procedures carried out on a humanoid Rando phantom. Our measurements show that the surface doses per CBCT scan can range anywhere between 0.1 and 4.7 cGy, with the lowest surface dose observed in the head and neck region, while the highest surface dose was observed for the Pelvis spot light CBCT protocol in the pelvic region, on the posterior side of the Rando phantom. The authors also present results of the uncertainty analysis of our XR-QA radiochromic film dosimetry system. Radiochromic film dosimetry protocol described in this work was used to perform dose measurements during CBCT acquisitions with the one-sigma dose measurement uncertainty of up to 3% for doses above 1 cGy. Our protocol is based on film exposure calibration in terms of "air kerma in air," which simplifies both the calibration procedure and reference dosimetry measurements. The results from a full Monte Carlo investigation of the dose conversion of measured XR-QA film dose at the surface into dose to water (or water kerma) at the surface of the phantom indicate that, for typical beam qualities used in CBCT, this conversion can be approximated by simple mass-energy absorption coefficient ratios water-to-air.

Optimizing the dynamic range extension of a radiochromic film dosimetry system

The authors present a radiochromic film dosimetry protocol for a multicolor channel radiochromic film dosimetry system consisting of the external beam therapy (EBT) model GAFCHROMIC film and the Epson Expression 1680 flat-bed document scanner. Instead of extracting only the red color channel, the authors are using all three color channels in the absorption spectrum of the EBT film to extend the dynamic dose range of the radiochromic film dosimetry system. By optimizing the dose range for each color channel, they obtained a system that has both precision and accuracy below 1.5%, and the optimized ranges are 0-4 Gy for the red channel, 4-50 Gy for the green channel, and above 50 Gy for the blue channel.

Radiochromic film dosimetry

The object of this paper is to give a new user some practical information on the use of radiochromic films for medical applications. While various aspects of radiochromic film dosimetry for medical applications have been covered in some detail in several other excellent review articles which have appeared in the last few years [Niroomand-Rad, A., Blackwell, C.R., Coursey, B.M., Gall, K.P., McLaughlin, W.L., Meigooni, A.S., Nath, R., Rodgers, J.E., Soares, C.G., 1998. Radiochromic dosimetry: recommendations of the AAPM Radiation Therapy Committee Task Group 55. Med. Phys. 25, 2093–2115; Dempsey, J.F., Low, D.A., Mutic, S., Markman, J., Kirov, A.S., Nussbaum, G.H., Williamson, J.F., 2000. Validation of a precision radiochromic film dosimetry system for quantitative two-dimensional imaging of acute exposure dose distributions. Med. Phys. 27, 2462–2475; Butson, M.J., Yu, P.K.N., Cheung, T., Metcalfe, P., 2003. Radiochromic film for medical radiation dosimetry. Mater. Sci. Eng. R41, 61–120], it is the intent of the present author to present material from a more user-oriented and practical standpoint. That is, how the films work will be stressed much less than how to make the films work well. The strength of radiochromic films is most evident in applications where there is a very high dose gradient and relatively high absorbed dose rates. These conditions are associated with brachytherapy applications, measurement of small fields, and at the edges (penumbra regions) of larger fields.

A thickness independent radiochromic film dosimetry system

A new radiochromic thin film dosimeter has been developed for use in radiation processing. The dosimeter's properties are similar to those of the commercially available FWT-60-00 Radiochromic Detectors with three key differences: 1) a lower sensitivity allows reading the optical density at the peak of the absorbtion spectrum (ca. 600 nm) for absorbed doses to over 50 kGy, 2) a radiation-insensitive dye additive allows for automatic thickness correction, and 3) another additive extends to higher doses the agreement between gamma and E-beam calibrations. The dosimeter is analyzed for its sensitivity, temperature and humidity dependencies, stability, reproducibility, and agreement of gamma and E-beam calibrations.