Commissioning, clinical implementation and quality assurance of Siemen's Virtual Wedge

This report presents the results of commissioning, clinical implementation and quality assurance of Siemens Virtual Wedge. Our measurements show that: (1) wedge factors are within 2% of unity, (2) percentage depth doses are within 1% of open beam data, and (3) wedged beam profiles can be modeled similarly to a physical wedge and follow a well defined equation to facilitate modeling of an arbitrary wedge angle. The gantry angle dependence of wedge profiles is similar to open beam profiles. The output of wedged fields is linear with delivered monitor units within 1%. Quality assurance results indicate the wedge profiles are very stable over time. Day to day variations of two points measured along the wedge gradient direction are within 1.5%.