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Procedures for establishing and maintaining consistent air‐kerma strength standards for low‐energy, photon‐emitting brachytherapy sources: Recommendations of the Calibration Laboratory Accreditation Subcommittee of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine
Author(s) -
DeWerd Larry A.,
Huq M. Saiful,
Das Indra J.,
Ibbott Geoffrey S.,
Hanson William F.,
Slowey Thomas W.,
Williamson Jeffrey F.,
Coursey Bert M.
Publication year - 2004
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 - 10.1118/1.1645681
Subject(s) - traceability , nist , dosimetry , medical physics , quality assurance , brachytherapy , kerma , accreditation , calibration , medicine , nuclear medicine , computer science , physics , radiation therapy , radiology , external quality assessment , software engineering , pathology , quantum mechanics , natural language processing , medical education
Low dose rate brachytherapy is being used extensively for the treatment of prostate cancer. As of September 2003, there are a total of thirteen125 I and seven103 Pd sources that have calibrations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratories (ADCLs) of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). The dosimetry standards for these sources are traceable to the NIST wide‐angle free‐air chamber. Procedures have been developed by the AAPM Calibration Laboratory Accreditation Subcommittee to standardize quality assurance and calibration, and to maintain the dosimetric traceability of these sources to ensure accurate clinical dosimetry. A description of these procedures is provided to the clinical users for traceability purposes as well as to provide guidance to the manufacturers of brachytherapy sources and ADCLs with regard to these procedures.