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Development and clinical characterization of a novel 2041 liquid‐filled ionization chambers array for high‐resolution verification of radiotherapy treatments
Author(s) -
BruallaGonzález Luis,
VázquezLuque Aurelio,
Zapata Martín,
GonzálezCastaño Diego Miguel,
LunaVega Víctor,
GuiuSouto Jacobo,
PrietoPena Juan,
García Trinitat,
Granero Domingo,
Vicedo Aurora,
Rosellò Joan,
Pombar Miguel,
Gómez Faustino,
PardoMontero Juan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1002/mp.12816
Subject(s) - ionization chamber , dosimetry , materials science , optics , detector , ionization , image resolution , nuclear medicine , physics , medicine , ion , quantum mechanics
Purpose The aim of this study was to present a novel 2041 liquid‐filled ionization chamber array for high‐resolution verification of radiotherapy treatments. Materials and Methods The prototype has 2041 ionization chambers of 2.5 × 2.5 mm 2 area filled with isooctane. The detection elements are arranged in a central square grid of 43 × 43, totally covering an area of 107.5 × 107.5 mm 2 . The central inline and cross‐line are extended to 227 mm and the diagonals to 321 mm to be able to perform profile measurements of large fields. We have studied stability, pixel response uniformity, dose rate dependence, depth and field size dependence and anisotropy. We present results for output factors, tongue‐and‐groove, garden fence, small field profiles, irregular fields, and verification of dose planes of patient treatments. Results Comparison with other detectors used for small field dosimetry ( SFD , CC 13, microDiamond) has shown good agreement. Output factors measured with the device for square fields ranging from 10 × 10 to 100 × 100 mm 2 showed relative differences within 1%. The response of the detector shows a strong dependence on the angle of incident radiation that needs to be corrected for. On the other hand, inter‐pixel relative response variations in the 0.95–1.08 range have been found and corrected for. The application of the device for the verification of dose planes of several treatments has shown gamma passing rates above 97% for tolerances of 2% and 2 mm. The verification of other clinical fields, like small fields and irregular fields used in the commissioning of the TPS , also showed large passing rates. The verification of garden fence and tongue‐and‐groove fields was affected by volume‐averaging effects. Conclusions The results show that the liquid filled ionization chamber prototype here presented is appropriate for the verification of radiotherapy treatments with high spatial resolution. Recombination effects do not affect very much the verification of relative dose distributions. However, verification of absolute dose distributions may require normalization to a radiation field which is representative of the dose rate of the treatment delivered.