Kevin Jordan

Review of recent advances in radiochromic materials for 3D dosimetry

Recent papers concerning radiochromic films, plastics and hydrogels for 3D dosimetry are summarized. The utility of Presage, a radiochromic plastic, with optical CT readout was demonstrated for the following applications: motion and gated treatment delivery, commissioning of small fields for radiosurgery, 192Ir high dose rate brachytherapy source commissioning and as a 3D insert for IMRT credentialing tests with Radiological Physics Centre (RPC) phantoms. Preliminary performance for characterizing microbeams from a synchrotron with optic projection tomography readout demonstrated resolution of an 83 micron diameter beam. Hydrogel chemistries based on nonionic micelles for leuco malachite green and leuco crystal violet demonstrated that low diffusion gels can be designed by choosing product dyes that are poorly soluble and water and tend to remain in the micelles. Turnbull blue chemistry has been successfully adapted to form a non-difffusing gel as well. The performance of ferrous xylenol orange hydrogel layers doped with boron to form neutron dosimeters demonstrated another practical application. Polymerization hydrogels are alternate materials that can be read with optical CT scanners. High dose gradient applications in brachytherapy with 90Sr/90Y sources and proton dosimetry are presented for comparison.

Optical CT scanning of cross-linked radiochromic gel without cylinder wall

Genipin cross-linked gelatin hydrogels with 0.2 M sulphuric acid are radiochromic and have sufficient sensitivity for investigating doses less than 50 Gray. Because of the gelatine cross-links, these gels have sufficient strength to allow removal from the vessel container in which they were cast. Placing the gels in the same liquid that was used for preparing the gel allows the radiochemistry to the same throughout the gels and provides physical support. In this buoyancy neutral environment the gel has the same shape and the preparation vessel. This allows optical CT scanning without wall artefacts due to reflection, refraction and optical activity. A gel was irradiated to dose of 25 Gray with a 10 MV photon beam of 20 ? 20 mm cross section. Full 3D optical CT scanning was performed with a Vista 10 optical cone-beam CT scanner. Central beam axis profiles and depth dose agree with diode and parallel plate ion chamber measurements. These results demonstrate that genipin cross-linked gel can be used for accurate 3D dosimetry, including surface dose measurements.

A stable black-refractive-index-matching liquid for optical CT scanning of hydrogels

The calibration of optical CT scanners often involves referencing of transmission values to surrounding refractive index matching liquid. Often these liquids suffer from wavelength dependencies or can degrade during the course of a scan. In this paper, we describe a black liquid that serves as a stable reference for attenuation measurements. An optically stable, refractive index matching liquid for optical CT scanning of hydrogels was developed. The solution contains: water, glycerol, surfactant and carbon black. Sequential transmission measurements demonstrated less than 5% variation in transmission during a two week storage period at room temperature. Black solutions are expected to minimize spectral beam hardening artefacts associated with polychromatic light sources.

Multiple slot array collimator to minimize stray light in optical cone beam CT

Acceptance of stray light in transmission images is a general imaging problem. A commercial optical cone beam CT scanner, Vista10 was modified to reduce stray light. Further stray light reduction was accomplished by placing vertical slot aperture arrays between the object and the diffusive light source. Comparisons of single and seven aperture arrays demonstrated that transmissions equivalent to scatter free conditions can be achieved with a multiple array collimator. Results for uniform liquids and finger gel phantoms demonstrate that small objects in a bright background are a more stringent test of stray light rejection.

Effects of adding glycerol and sucrose to ferrous xylenol orange hydrogel

Glycerol and sucrose were substituted up to 40% by mass for water in ferrous xylenol gelatin hydrogel (FX). Both materials increased the refractive index of the aqueous component of the gels and lowered the optical scatter coefficient. Diffusion of the FX products was reduced 3-fold at 40% substitution levels. The radiation response was more stable with glycerol.

Scatter measurements for optical cone-beam computed tomography

Both x-ray and optical cone-beam CT (CBCT) scanners are limited by scattered photons that contaminate the primary images. Transparent radiochromic gels and plastics are anticipated to produce less scattering than polymerization gels and hence result in reconstructed dose distributions with greater contrast and dynamic range. Four methods of scatter measurement were investigated to quantify scatter fractions using an in-house optical CBCT scanner. The methods consisted of generating either coin shadows or primary beamlets in transmission images. The four methods generated similar results of 10% scatter fractions in gel transmission images for this particular scanner configuration with both leuco crystal violet and carbon black micelle gels. The scatter contributions were distributed as 5% from micelle gel, 2% from Teflon wall, 2% from refractive index matching liquid and 1% other sources. Applying a uniform background subtraction of 2% of open field intensity resulted in 0.2% difference between laser CT and cone-beam CT reconstructed attenuation coefficients for a black micelle gel finger phantom.

A transparent black non-diffusing micelle gel for optical CT performance evaluation phantoms

Performance evaluation of optical CT scanners requires a set of phantoms with well known optical and geometric properties. Gels are often used and tinted with colouring agents but these suffer from wavelength dependencies, diffusion and degradation over time. In this paper we describe a new approach to creating suitable test phantoms using micelles. Adding surfactants to gelatin hydrogels allows materials insoluble in water to become suspended. Carbon black nanoparticles were dissolved into a transparent hydrogel consisting of 4% gelatine and 0.2% Triton X-100. The lack of macroscopic diffusion of the black particles was demonstrated by recording transmission images over 500 hours.

Non-diffusing radiochromic micelle gel

The addition of Laponite, a synthetic clay nanoparticle material to radiochromic leuco Malachite Green micelle hydrogel eliminates diffusion of the cationic dye by electrostatic binding. The clay nanoparticles also increased dose sensitivity ten-fold relative to the parent gel formulation. This material is a suitable 3D water equivalent dosimeter with optical CT readout.

Development of a radiochromic ferric oligomer hydrogel

Ferrous gelatin hydrogels were prepared by using sulphuric acid concentrations lower than required to maintain radiation induced ferric ions fully hydrated. The ferric hydroxyl species that are produced following irradiation exhibit a radiochromic response that can be probed with blue light. The dose distribution shapes were stable in time, indicating no long term diffusion. An over response to dose gradients was observed both in one centimeter cuvette samples and litre volumes probed with optical cone beam CT. This ferrous hydrogel may represent a model system for studying iron radiochemistry in biological systems.