[A Quality Assurance (QA) System with a Web Camera for High-dose-rate Brachytherapy]

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiation Oncology
• Brachytherapy Technology

Context:

• High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy requires precise delivery of radiation.
• Quality assurance (QA) is critical for ensuring patient safety and treatment efficacy.
• Accurate verification of source dwell position and time is essential in HDR brachytherapy.

Purpose:

• To develop and evaluate a novel QA system for simultaneously quantifying the dwell position and time of an Iridium-192 ((192)Ir) source.
• To assess the performance and accuracy of this QA system in the context of HDR brachytherapy.

Summary:

• A QA system utilizing a web camera and in-house software with template-matching was developed to verify and quantify (192)Ir source dwell position and time.
• The system records real-time images, allowing users to monitor source position and quantify it along with dwell time from recorded movies.
• Performance evaluation demonstrated mean step size errors of 0.31±0.1 mm and dwell time errors of 0.1±0.0 s, with high accuracy (1.0 mm for position, 0.1% for time).

Impact:

• Provides a tool for rapid and accurate verification and quantification of dwell parameters in HDR brachytherapy.
• Enhances the safety and precision of radiation delivery by ensuring accurate source placement and timing.
• Offers a user-friendly, real-time QA solution independent of step size, applicable across various dwell positions.