Utilization of Phosphorescent Materials During Quality Assurance of HDR Afterloaders
Presentations
PO-GePV-T-24 (Sunday, 7/10/2022) [Eastern Time (GMT-4)]
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Purpose: A qualitative measurement device is incredibly helpful when interrogating a brachytherapy device to ensure there are no gross errors. We sought to determine whether a phosphorescent measurement device could assist in the commissioning of an HDR afterloader.
Methods: A 5 Curie Ir-192 HDR source was used to treat several treatment applicators. A phosphorescent tape (measuring approximately 1in x 6in) was attached to the outside surface of the standard QA ruler, as well as several opaque applicators. The source was sent to several locations, and an in-room camera system was used to visualize the phosphorescence.
Results: The radiation from the HDR source caused the tape to phosphoresce and glow as soon as the source started dwelling within the applicator. The location of the HDR source was visible on the tape while it was dwelling inside of the applicator. Dwell times ranging from 5 to 200 seconds all produced a clearly visible glow from the tape. The glowing lasted for several minutes after the source had retracted before fading to background. The duration of glowing did not change after more than 10 irradiations.
Conclusion: The use of a phosphorescing device is a helpful tool when performing quality assurance on an HDR treatment device. It allows a physicist to determine the approximate location of the HDR source inside of an applicator without any additional imaging equipment. Future work will quantify the spatial accuracy of the measurements, properties when exposed to other isotopes, and determining the reproducibility of the glow curve after repeated irradiations.
Keywords
Quality Assurance, HDR, Brachytherapy
Taxonomy
TH- Brachytherapy: Calibration & Quality Assurance
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