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WE‐E‐BRB‐06: Monte Carlo Calculations of the Skin Dose for Longitudinal Linac‐MR System Using Realistic Three‐Dimensional Magnetic Field Modeling
Author(s) -
Keyvanloo A,
Burke B,
Tadic T,
Warkentin B,
Kirkby C,
Rathee S,
Fallone B
Publication year - 2012
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 - 10.1118/1.4736148
Subject(s) - imaging phantom , magnetic field , monte carlo method , magnet , linear particle accelerator , physics , field (mathematics) , air gap (plumbing) , computational physics , phase space , electron , beam (structure) , nuclear medicine , nuclear magnetic resonance , optics , materials science , nuclear physics , medicine , mathematics , statistics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , composite material , thermodynamics
Purpose: This study quantifies the effects of the magnetic field of a longitudinal linac‐MR system (B‐field parallel to beam direction) on skin dose due to the confinement of contaminant electrons, using Monte Carlo calculations and realistic 3‐D models of the magnetic field. Methods: The complete realistic 3‐D magnetic fields generated by the bi‐planar Linac‐MR magnet assembly are calculated with the finite element method using Opera‐ 3D. EGSnrc simulations are performed in the presence of ∼0.6T and IT MRI fields that have realistic rapid fall‐off of the fringe field. The simulation geometry includes a Varian 600C 6MV linac, the yoke and magnetic shields of the MRIs, and features an isocentre distance of 126 cm. Phase spaces at the surface of a water phantom are scored using BEAMnrc; DOSXYZnrc is used to score the resulting CAX percent depth‐doses in the phantom and the 2D skin dose distributions in the first 70 urn layer. For comparison, skin doses are also calculated in the absence of magnetic field and using a 1‐D magnetic field with an unrealistic fringe field. The effects of field size and air gap (between phantom surface and magnet pole) are also examined. Results: Analysis of the phase‐space and dose distributions reveals that significant containment of electrons occurs primarily close to the uniform magnetic field region. The increase in skin dose due to the magnetic field depends on the air gap, varying from 1% to 13% for air gaps of 5 to 31 cm, respectively. The increase is also field‐size dependent, varying from 3% at 20×20 cm2 to 11% at 5×5 cm2. Conclusions: Calculations based on various realistic MRI 3D magnetic‐field maps that appropriately account for the rapid decay of the fringe field show that the increase in the patient skin dose of a longitudinal Linac‐MR system is clinically insignificant.