[Investigation of polymer gel dosimetry for small circular irradiated fields]

Polymer gels can be used as tissue equivalent dosimeters, and polymer gel dosimetry can be employed without perturbation of the radiation field. In this study, polymer gel dosimetry was used for small circular irradiation fields 10-30 mm in diameter using a radiation planning system. The irradiated gels were compared with planned data for a 50% dose width of 6 Gy dose maximum, and for the dose difference between gels and planned data over an 80% dose maximum area. The present study investigated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) conditions based on an optimal dose-R2 calibration curve. The average difference between the full width half maximum of the 50% dose width between gels and planned data was 11%. The average dose difference over 80% of the dose was 5.6%. Optimal dose-R2 calibration curves were acquired using images with echo times of 30 and 60 ms. For cases of larger thicknesses and an increasing number of averages, the coefficients of variance of the curves were smaller than under other conditions. Compared to other traditional dosimetric tools, polymer gels have the advantage of providing three-dimensional dosimetric data. An arbitrary profile from the gel's data can be compared with the profile of the planned data. In the future, new gel dosimeters will be needed that demonstrate improved dose evaluation under 1 Gy and stability in high dose areas.