| Recent advances in computer and radiation delivery technologies have led to new and complex methods in radiotherapy which involve the deposition of radiation in the human body at high doses or dose rates. Both these and more traditional approaches to radiotherapy would benefit from a means to provide detailed information about the distribution of radiation dose in multiple dimensions for the purposes of treatment planning and verification.; Several investigations have been carried out over the past few years to evaluate the utility of various formulations of ferrous sulphate, or Fricke, get dosimeters in the measurement of radiation fields. These have been proposed to be of particular value in the determination of three-dimensional radiation dose distributions associated with emerging and complex approaches to cancer treatment such as 'gamma knife', pencil beam, stereotactic, or conformal radiotherapies. Hitherto, the emphasis in the majority of approaches has been on measuring the difference in effect on paramagnetic properties between the initial ferrous ion concentration of the solution, and the ferric ions which a produced following irradiation. Although many positive and confirmative results have been published regarding this method, it relies on access to clinical MRI units for imaging the irradiated gel; an expensive and logistical challenge for the majority of potential users.; We report here a study carried out to determine the feasibility of analyzing one form of this dosimeter through tomographic reconstruction of two-dimensional optical projections acquired using an ordinary, diffuse light source, video camera, standard tomographic reconstruction software, and other components designed and/or assembled by the author. Qualitative, quantitative and statistical analyses yield highly linear and reproducible results with r2 from regression analyses typically on the order of 0.98. Comparisons of the measured dose distribution patterns to the treatment plan prediction are provided, indicating that the system functions as desired. Preliminary findings indicate that our method may provide a convenient, inexpensive and accurate tool for the quantitative measurement and visual assessment of complex radiation dose distributions associated with new radiotherapy techniques either proposed or under investigation, as well as treatment plan verification, equipment tests, and routine quality control. |
