We developed very small parallel plate radiation detector by using our existing experience of making radiation dosimeter and capability of analyzing characteristics of dosimeter. The radiation detector was consisted of microfilm and carbon electrode. The detector was parallel plate type of air-filled ionization chamber. The ionization chamber had been fabricated using an acrylic plate for the air cavity and carbon coated microfilm for electrical configuration. The air gap between two electrodes was 0.48 mm. The diameters of collect electrode and guard electrode were 3.3 mm, 5 mm respectively. The diameter of high voltage electrode was 5 mm. Nominal sensitive volume of the chamber was 0.016 cm³. The major parameters of the chamber characteristics such as leakage current, reproducibility, dose rate effect, and polarity effect were measured. The experimental results were as followings. Leakage current was 0.1 pA. Standard deviation of reproducibility was less than 0.1%. Dose rate effect was less than 1.5%. Polarity effect was less than 2.4%. These data were comparable to those of commercially available dosimetric system for QA-purpose. As the result, we found that the radiation detector consisting of the ionization chamber, microfilm and carbon electrode, was satisfactory for the purpose of the small field dosimetry in size and characteristics. In the future, We will try to refine the dosimeter for use in very small volume.

HDR brachytherapy administers a large dose of radiation in a short time compare with LDR, and its optimization for treatment is related to several complex factors, such as physical, radiation and optimization algorithms, so there is a need for these to be verified for accurate dose delivery. In our approach, a previous study concerning the phantom for dose verification has been modified, and a new pelvic phantom fabricated for the purpose of localization, including a structure enabling the use of a CT or MRI system. In addition, a comparison study was performed to verify an orthogonal method that is commonly used for brachytherapy localization by comparing target coordinates from a CT system. Since the developed phantom was designed to simulate the clinical setups of cervix cancer, it included an air-filled bladder and a rectum structure shaped sphere and cylinder. An N-shaped localizer was used to obtain precision coordinates from both CT and films. Moreover, the IDL 5.5 software program for Windows was used to perform coordinates analysis based on an orthogonal algorithm. The film results showed differences within 1.0 mm of the selected target points compare with the CT coordinates. For these results, a Plato planning system (Nucletron, Netherlands) could be independently verified using this phantom and software. Furthermore, the new phantom and software will be efficient and powerful quality assurance (QA) tools in the field of brachytherapy QA.

The most important work for early detection of liver cancer and decision of its characteristic and location is good segmentation of a liver region from other abdominal organs. This paper proposes a fully automatic liver segmentation algorithm based on the abdominal morphology characteristic as an easy and efficient method. Multi-modal threshold as pre-processing is performed and a spine is segmented for finding morphological coordinates of an abdomen. Then the liver region is extracted using C-class maximum a posteriori (MAP) decision and morphological filtering. In order to estimate results of the automatic segmented liver region, area error rate (AER) and correlation coefficients of rotational binary region projection matching (RBRPM) are utilized. Experimental results showed automatic liver segmentation obtained by the proposed algorithm provided strong similarity to manual liver segmentation.

The commissioning of a model-based treatment planning system requires many parameters to fit the measured depth doses and transverse profiles. For the commissioning of the Pinnacle³ system, through the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation, the necessary parameters, including the photon spectrum, contaminant electrons, off-axis softening and fluency of photons, were observed. Through the simulation the parameters contained valuable information, but the calculated results of the Pinnacle³ using the MC-derived parameters showed discrepancies with those measured for the off-axis softening and the fluency of photons. Even though the MC calculation produces reasonable values for the commissioning, the thorough physical basis of the Pinnacle³'s commissioning process is needed in order to directly use the MC derived parameters.

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a technique that delivers a high dose to a target region and a low dose to a critical organ through only one or a few irradiations. For this purpose, many mathematical methods for optimization have been proposed. There are some limitations to using these methods: the long calculation time and difficulty in finding a unique solution due to different tumor shapes. In this study, many clinical target shapes were examined to find a typical pattern of tumor shapes from which some possible ideal geometrical shapes, such as spheres, cylinders, cones or a combination, are assumed to approximate real tumor shapes. Using the arrangement of multiple isocenters, optimum variables, such as isocenter positions or collimator size, were determined. A database was formed from these results. The optimization procedure consisted of the following steps: Any shape of tumor was first assumed to an ideal model through a geometry comparison algorithm, then optimum variables for ideal geometry chosen from the predetermined database, followed by a final adjustment of the optimum parameters using the real tumor shape. Although the result of applying the database to other patients was not superior to the result of optimization in each case, it can be acceptable as a plan starting point.

Radiochromic film has several advantages; high spatial resolution, relatively low spectral sensitivity, near tissue equivalence and requires no special development procedure. The object of this study was to measure the anisotropy of an Ir-192 source (microSelectron manufactured by Nucletron) in a few mm regions from the source, using the GafChromic film. The GafChromic film was calibrated in the range of 0∼105 Gy, using a 4 MV photon beam, and the anisotropy function measured in an acrylic phantom using the GafChroimic film. The data obtained gave agreement to within 4.4% of the Monte Calro calculation, by J. F. Williamson, at a radial distance of 2.5 mm with polar angles of 50 to 130^o, while a maximum deviation of 17.6% was observed at angles near 140^o and agreement within 3.7% at a radial distance of 5 mm at polar angles between 35 to 160^o and a maximum deviation of 7.6% was observed at angles near 30^o. A GafChromic film can be used as a more efficient detector for measuring the anisotropy of an HDR ¹⁹²Ir source at close distances than any other detector.

The detector size effect due to the spatial response of detectors is a critical source of inaccuracy in clinical dosimetry that has been the subject of numerous studies. Conventionally, the detector response kernel contains all the information about the influence that the detector size has on the measured beam profile. Various analytical models for this kernel have been proposed and studied in theoretical and experimental works. Herein, a method to simply determine the detector response kernel using the Monte Carlo simulation and convolution theory has been proposed. Based on this numerical method, the detector response kernel for a Farmer type ion chamber embedded in a water phantom has been obtained. The obtained kernel shows characteristics of both the pre-existing parabolic model proposed by Sibata et al. and the Gaussian model used by Garcia-Vicente et al. From this kernel and deconvolution technique, the detector size effect can be removed from measurements for 6MV, 10×10 cm² and 0.5×10 cm² photon beams. The deconvolved beam profiles are in good agreements with the measurements performed by the film and pin-point ion chamber, with the exception of in the tail region.

The parallel plate detector with dielectric film for dosimetry was designed to measure detection characteristic of 6 MV X-ray with medical linear accelerator. PTFE film was inserted into FEP films that are made by two one-side metal coated materials for ion source. The thicknesses of PTFE dielectric film was 100Ռm and the thickness of FEP dielectric film was 100Ռm, respectively. This detector was fixed by two acrylic plate for physical hardness and geometrical consistency. The geometrical condition for measurement with parallel-plate detector was below; SSD=100 cm and the 5 cm depth between detector and phantom surface The major parameter of detector characteristics such as zero drift current, leakage current, charge response by applied voltage, reproducibility, linearity, TMR measurement, dose rate effect were measured. The zero drift currents are 8.3 pA and leakage currents are 10 pA. The charge response of applied voltage is showing linearity in 414 voltage. The measurement deviation of reproducibility in this detector is within 1% for dose and the linearity of applied dose shows in this detector. The TMR curves in phantom between this parallel plate detector and reference detector are matched within 3% deviation from maximum dose depth to 7.5 cm depth. It is considered that this dosimetric system is satisfactory for the purpose of the constancy check of the 6 MV x-ray from medical linear accelerator.

We tried to build human models based on medical images of live Korean, instead of using standard data of human body structures. Characteristics of mechanical structures of human bodies were obtained from medical images such as CT and MR images. For each constitutional part of mechanical structures CT images were analyzed in terms of gray levels and MR images were analyzed in terms of pulse sequence. Characteristic features of various mechanical structures were extracted from the analyses. Based on the characteristics of each structuring element we performed image segmentation on CT and MR images. We delineated bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons from CT and MR images using image segmentation or manual drawing. For the image segmentation we compared the edge detection method, region growing method and intensity threshold method and applied an optimal compound of these methods for the best segmentation results. Segmented mechanical structures of the head/neck part were three dimensionally reconstructed.