Small animal irradiator dose distribution verification using radioluminescence imaging

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiotherapy
• Dosimetry

Background:

• Accurate dosimetry is crucial for effective small animal external radiotherapy.
• Current 2D dosimetry methods may have limitations in precision and ease of use.
• Radioluminescence imaging (RLI) offers a potential alternative for dose verification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel 2D dosimetry approach for small animal radiotherapy using RLI.
• To assess the accuracy and reliability of RLI for quality assurance of small animal irradiators.
• To compare RLI measurements with established dosimetry techniques.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 2D dosimetry system utilizing RLI with a complementary metal oxide semiconductor detector.
• Implementation on the SmART small animal image-guided platform.
• Correction of RLI data for perspective distortion using MATLAB.
• Comparison of RLI-derived dose distributions and profiles with Monte Carlo (MC) calculations and gafchromic film measurements.
• Evaluation of system linearity and image noise as a function of dose.

Main Results:

• The novel RLI approach demonstrated accurate planar 2D dose distributions and dose profiles.
• The maximum difference in beam size between RLI measurements and nominal values was less than 8%.
• The image correction procedure effectively reduced perspective distortion.
• RLI results showed agreement with MC dose calculations and gafchromic film measurements.

Conclusions:

• A novel and effective 2D RLI dosimetry approach for small animal radiotherapy has been successfully developed and tested.
• This RLI method provides a reliable tool for quality assurance of small animal irradiators.
• The findings support the use of RLI as a viable dosimetry technique in preclinical radiotherapy research.