Benchmarking a new Chemicals detector for its implementation in clinical radiology

W. MOLINA; D. GRAÑA; L. CARRIZALES SILVA; G. TIRAO; M. VALENTE

Santa Marta

Congreso; XIII Latin American Seminary of Analysis by X-ray Techniques ? SARX; 2012

Solid state detectors have been largely studied in view of the potential application for clinical dosimetry, but there are several requirements hard to be accomplished, like good enough accuracy, signal stability, reproducibility and tissue-equivalence. Chemical detectors, like Fricke or polymeric solutions, have proven to be suitable choices for clinical dosimetry. However, these materials have been usually optimised and applied to high-dose ranges, like those corresponding to typical dose levels in conventional external radiotherapy. This work presents relevant results regarding the development of a suitable solid state dosimeter based on chemical reactions. Moreover, this work reports results about the performance and characterisation at low dose levels of the developed dosimeter as well as preliminary tests for its implementation in clinical radiology. The first step consisted on assessing and studying a suitable chemical composition for high sensitive response at low dose levels (around 50mGy) as required for radio-diagnostic purposes. Then, dedicated experiments and Monte Carlo simulations were performed with the aim of cross-comparisons and preliminary validation of the method. Furthermore, suitable experimental and virtual configurations were used for checking the capability of the developed dosimetric technique for digital diagnostic radiography and computed tomography, even using anthropomorphic tissue-equivalence phantoms. Both absorption contrast digital radiography and computed tomography experiments have been performed with complete control of all physical, geometrical and technical imaging parameters at the integrated medical imaging line of Laboratorio de Investigaciones e Instrumentación en Física Aplicada a la Medicina e Imágenes por Rayos X (LIIFAMIRX) of the University of Córdoba, Argentina. The obtained results proved the feasibility and reliability of the proposed method. Moreover, it has been shown that the developed dosimetry may be adequate for its potential implementation in daily or routine quality control and assurance for clinical radiation therapy.