The C-band compact linear accelerator (linac) is being developed at Dongnam Institute of radiological & Medical Sciences (DIRAMS) for medical and industrial applications. This paper was focused on the output measurement of the electron beam generated from the prototype electron linac. The dose rate was measured in unit of cGy/min per unit pulse frequency according to the IAEA TRS-398 protocol. Exradin-A10 Markus type plane parallel chamber used for the measurement was calibrated in terms of dose to water at the reference depth in water. The beam quality index (R₅₀) was determined by the radiochromic film with a solid water phantom approximately due to low energy electrons. As a result, the determined electron beam output was 17.0 cGy/(minㆍHz). The results were used to monitor the accelerator performance during the development procedure.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the rotational errors of roll, pitch, and yaw in the whole breast cancer treated by the three-dimensional radiation therapy (3D-CRT) using TomoDirect (TD). Twenty-patient previously treated with TD 3D-CRT was selected. We performed a retrospective clinical analysis based on 80 images of megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) including the systematic and random variation with patient setup errors and treatment setup margin (mm). In addition, a rotational error (degree) for each patient was analyzed using the automatic image registration. The treatment margin of X, Y, and Z directions were 4.2 mm, 6.2 mm, and 6.4 mm, respectively. The mean value of the rotational error for roll, pitch, and yaw were 0.3°, 0.5°, 0.1°, and all of systematic and random error was within 1.0°. The errors of patient positioning with the Y and Z directions have generally been mainly higher than the X direction. The percentage in treatment fractions in less than 2° at roll, pitch, and yaw are 95.1%, 98.8%, and 97.5%, respectively. However, the edge of upper and lower (i.e., bottom) based on the center of therapy region (point) will quite a possibility that it is expected to twist even longer as the length of treatment region. The patient-specific characters should be considered for the accuracy and reproducibility of treatment and it is necessary to confirm periodically the rotational errors, including patient repositioning and repeating MVCT scan.

The purpose of the Monte Carlo simulation study was to provide the optimized nozzle design to satisfy the beam conditions for biomedical researches in the Korean heavy-ion accelerator, RAON. The nozzle design was required to produce C¹² beam satisfying the three conditions; the maximum field size, the dose uniformity and the beam contamination. We employed the GEANT4 toolkit in Monte Carlo simulation to optimize the nozzle design. The beams for biomedical researches were required that the maximum field size should be more than 15×15 cm², the dose uniformity was to be less than 3% and the level of beam contamination due to the scattered radiation from collimation systems was less than 5% of total dose. For the field size, we optimized the tilting angle of the circularly rotating beam controlled by a pair of dipole magnets at the most upstream of the user beam line unit and the thickness of the scatter plate located downstream of the dipole magnets. The values of beam scanning angle and the thickness of the scatter plate could be successfully optimized to be 0.5^o and 0.05 cm via this Monte Carlo simulation analysis. For the dose uniformity and the beam contamination, we introduced the new beam configuration technique by the combination of scanning and static beams. With the combination of a central static beam and a circularly rotating beam with the tilting angle of 0.5^o to beam axis, the dose uniformity could be established to be 1.1% in 15×15 cm² sized maximum field. For the beam contamination, it was determined by the ratio of the absorbed doses delivered by C¹² ion and other particles. The level of the beam contamination could be achieved to be less than 2.5% of total dose in the region from 5 cm to 17 cm water equivalent depth in the combined beam configuration. Based on the results, we could establish the optimized nozzle design satisfying the beam conditions which were required for biomedical researches.

Since a Compton camera has high detection sensitivity due to electronic collimation and a good energy resolution, it is a potential imaging system for nuclear medicine. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of a Compton camera for multi-tracer imaging and proposed a rotating Compton camera to satisfy Orlov’s condition for 3D imaging. Two software phantoms of 140 and 511 keV radiation sources were used for Monte-Carlo simulation and then the simulation data were reconstructed by listmode ordered subset expectation maximization to evaluate the capability of multi-tracer imaging in a Compton camera. And the Compton camera rotating around the object was proposed and tested with different rotation angle steps for improving the limited coverage of the fixed conventional Compton camera over the field-of-view in terms of histogram of angles in spherical coordinates. The simulation data showed the separate 140 and 511 keV images from simultaneous multi-tracer detection in both 2D and 3D imaging and the number of valid projection lines on the conical surfaces was inversely proportional to the decrease of rotation angle. Considering computation load and proper number of projection lines on the conical surface, the rotation angle of 30 degree was sufficient for 3D imaging of the Compton camera in terms of 26 min of computation time and 5 million of detected event number and the increased detection time can be solved with multiple Compton camera system. The Compton camera proposed in this study can be effective system for multi-tracer imaging and is a potential system for development of various disease diagnosis and therapy approaches.

In this study, we investigated the effects of an iterative reconstruction algorithm and an automatic exposure control (AEC) technique on image quality and radiation dose through phantom experiments with coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography protocols. We scanned the AAPM CT performance phantom using 320 multi-detector-row CT. At the tube voltages of 80, 100, and 120 kVp, the scanning was repeated with two settings of the AEC technique, i.e., with the target standard deviations (SD) values of 33 (the higher tube current) and 44 (the lower tube current). The scanned projection data were reconstructed also in two ways, with the filtered back projection (FBP) and with the iterative reconstruction technique (AIDR-3D). The image quality was evaluated quantitatively with the noise standard deviation, modulation transfer function, and the contrast to noise ratio (CNR). More specifically, we analyzed the influences of selection of a tube voltage and a reconstruction algorithm on tube current modulation and consequently on radiation dose. Reduction of image noise by the iterative reconstruction algorithm compared with the FBP was revealed eminently, especially with the lower tube current protocols, i.e., it was decreased by 46% and 38%, when the AEC was established with the lower dose (the target SD=44) and the higher dose (the target SD=33), respectively. As a side effect of iterative reconstruction, the spatial resolution was decreased by a degree that could not mar the remarkable gains in terms of noise reduction. Consequently, if coronary CT angiogprahy is scanned and reconstructed using both the automatic exposure control and iterative reconstruction techniques, it is anticipated that, in comparison with a conventional acquisition method, image noise can be reduced significantly with slight decrease in spatial resolution, implying clinical advantages of radiation dose reduction, still being faithful to the ALARA principle.

The Monte Carlo based dose calculation program for stereotactic body radiotherapy was developed in this study. The Geant4 toolkit widely used in the radiotherapy was used for this study. The photon energy spectrum of the medical linac studied in the previous research was applied for the patient dose calculations. The geometry of the radiation fields defined by multi-leaf collimators were taken into account in the PrimaryGeneratorAction class of the Geant4 code. The total of 8 fields were demonstrated in the patient dose calculations, where rotation matrix as a function of gantry angle was used for the determination of the source positions. The DicomHandler class converted the binary file format of the DICOM data containing the matrix number, pixel size, endian type, HU number, bit size, padding value and high bits order to the ASCII file format. The patient phantom was constructed using the converted ASCII file. The EGSnrc code was used to compare the calculation efficiency of the material data.

In proton therapy, verification of proton dose distribution is important to treat cancer precisely and to enhance patients’ safety. To verify proton dose distribution, in a previous study, our team incorporated a vertically-aligned one-dimensional array detection system. We measured 2D prompt-gamma distribution moving the developed detection system in the longitudinal direction and verified similarity between 2D prompt-gamma distribution and 2D proton dose distribution. In the present, we have developed two-dimension prompt-gamma measurement system consisted of a 2D parallel-hole collimator, 2D array-type NaI(Tl) scintillators, and multi-anode PMT (MA-PMT) to measure 2D prompt-gamma distribution in real time. The developed measurement system was tested with ²²Na (0.511 and 1.275 MeV) and ¹³⁷Cs (0.662 MeV) gamma sources, and the energy resolutions of 0.511, 0.662 and 1.275 MeV were 10.9%±0.23p%, 9.8%±0.18p% and 6.4%±0.24p%, respectively. Further, the energy resolution of the high gamma energy (3.416 MeV) of double escape peak from Am-Be source was 11.4%±3.6p%. To estimate the performance of the developed measurement system, we measured 2D prompt-gamma distribution generated by PMMA phantom irradiated with 45 MeV proton beam of 0.5 nA. As a result of comparing a EBT film result, 2D prompt-gamma distribution measured for 9×10⁹ protons is similar to 2D proton dose distribution. In addition, the 45 MeV estimated beam range by profile distribution of 2D prompt gamma distribution was 17.0±0.4 mm and was intimately related with the proton beam range of 17.4 mm.

The automated dental cavity detection program for a new concept intra-oral dental x-ray imaging device, an auxiliary diagnosis system, which is able to assist a dentist to identify dental caries in an early stage and to make an accurate diagnosis, was to be developed. The primary theory of the automatic dental cavity detection program is divided into two algorithms; one is an image segmentation skill to discriminate between a dental cavity and a normal tooth and the other is a computational method to analyze feature of an tooth image and take an advantage of it for detection of dental cavities. In the present study, it is, first, evaluated how accurately the DRLSE (Direct Regularized Level Set Evolution) method extracts demarcation surrounding the dental cavity. In order to evaluate the ability of the developed algorithm to automatically detect dental cavities, 7 tooth phantoms from incisor to molar were fabricated which contained a various form of cavities. Then, dental cavities in the tooth phantom images were analyzed with the developed algorithm. Except for two cavities whose contours were identified partially, the contours of 12 cavities were correctly discriminated by the automated dental caries detection program, which, consequently, proved the practical feasibility of the automatic dental lesion detection algorithm. However, an efficient and enhanced algorithm is required for its application to the actual dental diagnosis since shapes or conditions of the dental caries are different between individuals and complicated. In the future, the automatic dental cavity detection system will be improved adding pattern recognition or machine learning based algorithm which can deal with information of tooth status.