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Fast and accurate leaf verification for dynamic multileaf collimation using an electronic portal imaging device
Author(s) -
Vieira Sandra C.,
Dirkx Maarten L. P.,
Pasma Kasper L.,
Heijmen Ben J. M.
Publication year - 2002
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 - 10.1118/1.1501141
Subject(s) - collimated light , reproducibility , quality assurance , multileaf collimator , computer science , optics , materials science , beam (structure) , physics , mathematics , linear particle accelerator , laser , engineering , statistics , external quality assessment , operations management
A prerequisite for accurate dose delivery of IMRT profiles produced with dynamic multileaf collimation (DMLC) is highly accurate leaf positioning. In our institution, leaf verification for DMLC was initially done with film and ionization chamber. To overcome the limitations of these methods, a fast, accurate and two‐dimensional method for daily leaf verification, using our CCD‐camera based electronic portal imaging device (EPID), has been developed. This method is based on a flat field produced with a 0.5 cm wide sliding gap for each leaf pair. Deviations in gap widths are detected as deviations in gray scale value profiles derived from the EPID images, and not by directly assessing leaf positions in the images. Dedicated software was developed to reduce the noise level in the low signal images produced with the narrow gaps. The accuracy of this quality assurance procedure was tested by introducing known leaf position errors. It was shown that errors in leaf gap as small as 0.01–0.02 cm could be detected, which is certainly adequate to guarantee accurate dose delivery of DMLC treatments, even for strongly modulated beam profiles. Using this method, it was demonstrated that both short and long term reproducibility in leaf positioning were within 0.01 cm (1σ) for all gantry angles, and that the effect of gravity was negligible.