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TH‐B‐350‐01: Scintillation Dosimetry: Review, New Innovations and Applications
Author(s) -
Beddar S,
Beaulieu L
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1118/1.2962819
Subject(s) - scintillation , dosimetry , scintillator , dosimeter , detector , optics , physics , dose profile , medical physics , particle detector , nuclear medicine , radiation , imaging phantom , medicine
Interest in the development of plastic scintillation detector systems for dosimetry has been evolving for more than a decade. Plastic scintillation materials have many properties that make them ideal for dosimetry including water equivalence and energy independence for MV photons, linearity with dose, dose rate independence, and high spatial resolution. Therefore, these detectors do not require the usual conversion and/or correction factors used for other commonly used detectors to convert the dosimeter reading to absorbed dose. The only disadvantage of plastic scintillation detectors is the spurious effect arising from Cerenkov radiation produced in the optical fiber that guides the scintillation light, which has been solved. This evolution started with point detectors and is leading to matrix arrays to respond to the ever‐increasing complexity of radiotherapy treatment fields such as IMRT. Small fields, high dose gradients and other challenging conditions could soon require the development of commercial scintillation detectors. Moreover by using a photodetector with a large sensitive area (e.g. a CCD camera), arrays of several hundreds of scintillation detectors could be made to simplify long and arduous quality assurance tests. This lecture will provide an overview of the dosimetric characteristics and properties of plastic scintillation detectors when exposed to high‐energy photon, electron as well as proton beams. We will discuss both forms of plastic‐based scintillation detectors: plastic scintillators and plastic scintillating fibers. Finally, we will present few applications for plastic scintillation detectors in clinical radiotherapy: stereotactic radiosurgery, quality assurance and in vivo dosimetry applications. Educational Objectives: 1. Review the underlying physics of scintillation materials. 2. Review the properties of plastic scintillation materials used in radiation dosimetry. 3. Understand the principles of this method and recent innovations in scintillation dosimetry. 4. Identify applications that could benefit from scintillation detectors.