• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.56-60
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• 1994

In the past, brachytherapy was carried out mostly with radium or radon sources. Currently. use of artificially produced radionuclially produced radionuclides such as $^{137}Cs,\;^{192}Ir,\;^{198}Au,\;and\;^{125}I$ is rapidly increasing. Although electrons are often used as an alternative to interstitial implants, brachytherapy continues to remain an important mode of therapy, either alone or combined with external beam. The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements(NCRP) recommends that the strength of any ${\gamma}$ emitter should be specified directly in terms of exposure rate in air at a specified distance such as 1m. The air kerma strength is defined as the product of air kerma rate in 'free space' and the square of the disrance of the calibration point from the source center along the perpendicular bisector, i. e., $S_k=K_L{\times}L^2$. Where $S_K$ is the the air kerma strength and K is the air kerma rate at a specified distance L. (usually 1m). Recommended units for all kerma strength are ${\mu}Gym^{2}h^{-1}$.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.147-151
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• 2007

AAPM TG43 report has recommended to measure air kerma strength with the strength of source. Main purpose of this study is to verify the accuracy of air kerma strength provided by manufacturer. Materials for this study were MAX-4001 Electrometer, HDR 1000 Plus of the corporation of standard imaging, and 6 french bronchial Applicator with 1000 mm. we measured ionization current in 10-90 mm range from the bottom of the central axis of chamber. The reference point of calibration displayed by the maximum ionization current in the ionization current curve was measured, and air kerma strength was computed from the maximum ionization current. we acquired 50 mm distance to correspond with the maximum ionization current in the ionization current curve. Its distance has perfectly fitted to the source reference point of calibration certificate of UW-ADCL. Air kerma strength computed value has measured about 0.5% more than calibration value provided by manufacturer. Air kerma strength of calibration certificate provided by manufacturer has acquired reliable results. This study shows that considering the move error of dwell position of source and the dead space length in well-type chamber is a good way to get an accurate result.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.232-237
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• 2006

The aim of this study was to develop the calculation algorithm of source strength of Ir-192 source In terms of the absorbed dose to water instead of an apparent activity (Ci). For this work the Multi Purpose Brachytherapy Phantom(MPBP) was developed, which was designed to locate the source and the chamber precisely at a specific position Inside the water phantom. The reference point of measurement was set at the 5 cm distance along the transverse axis of the source. For a brachytherapy source calibration, the absorbed dose to water calibration factor ($N_{D.W.Q}$) of an lonization chamber were determined and then apply standard protocols of absorbed dose to water. The calibration factor ($N_{D.W.Q}$) of the ion chamber (TM30013, PTW, Germany) was determined using the EGSnrcCPP Monte Carlo Code. The calculated calibration factor ($N_{D.W.Q}$) was 5.28 cGy/nC. The calculated factor was then used to determine the absorbed dose to water from which the air kerma strength for an Ir-192 source can be easily derived at the reference point (5 cm). The calculated air kerma strength showed discrepancies of -0.6% to +1.8% relative to the air kerma strength provided by the vendor, In this work we demonstrated that the air kerma strength ($S_k$) could be determined from the absorbed dose to water calibration factor for Ir-192 source. In audition, this source calibration method could be applied directly to the dose Calculation formalism of AAPM report TG-43.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2009

The quality correction in the air kerma dosimetry for Ir-192 using farmer type ionization chambers calibrated by Co-60 quality is required. In this study we determined quality factor ($k_u$) of two ionization chambers of PTW-N30001 and N23333 for Ir-192 source using dosimetric method. The quality factors for energy spectrum of microSelectron were determined as $k_u$=1.016 and 1.017 for PTW-N30001 and N23333 ionization chambers respectively. We applied quality factors in air kerma dosimetry for microSelectron source and compared with reference values. As a results we found that the differences between reference air kerma rate and measured it with and without quality correction were about -0.5% and -2.0% respectively.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2003

The dose distributions of designed Ir-192 micro-source were investigated by dose computations which were accomplished by employing shape of encapsule material and thickness of the source for self-absorption. The computation dose derived from air-kerma rate (S$_{k}$ ) and dose rate constant (Λ) includes the anisotropy of dose distribution around the source. We got the dose rate constants in a water medium is 1.154 cGy h$^{-1}$ U$^{-1}$ . The size of the source was 0.5 mm in diameter and 3.5 mm in length and it was encapsuled in 1.1 mm$\Phi$${\times}$5.5 mm of stainless steel sealed with 0.3 mm of filter thickness. The tissue dose of reference point at 1.0 cm radial distance of the source axis was delivered 1.154 Uh$^{-1}$ (1.3167${\times}$10$^{-3}$ cGy/mCi-sec) from the S$_{k}$ 4.108U/mCi of Ir-192 source. The filtration effect contributed to air-kerma strength as exponential filtering effect of 86.2% in total attenuation, but self-absorption was 88.4% from radial dose distributions. In particular, the dose attenuations showed a rapid anisotropic distributions as 56% of reference dose along to $\pm$10 degrees from the tip of source axis and 50% for of that to source-cable direction. We persist in use the large diameter of applicator will avoid the dose anisotropy by the filtered attenuation effects along the axis of Ir-192 micro-source.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.259-266
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• 1998

To achieve the 2D dose distribution around the designed high dose rate Ir-192 source substitution for Co-60 brachytherapy source, we determined the exposure rate constant and tissue attenuation factors as a large depth as a 20 cm from source center. The exposure rate constant is used for apparent activity in designed source with self-absorption and encapsulation steel wall. The tissue dose delivered from the 4401 segments of 2.5 mm in a diameter and 2.5 mm height of disk-type source layer. In the experiments, the tissue attenuation factors include the tissue attenuation and multiple scattering in a medium surrounding the source. The fitted the polynomial regression with 4th order for the tissue attenuation factors are very closed to the experimental measurement data within ${\pm}$1% discrepancy. The Meisberger's constant showed the large uncertainty in large distance from source. The exposure rate constant 4.69 Rcm$^2$/mCi-hr was currently used for determination of apparent activity of source and air kerma strength was obtained 0.973 for tissue absorbed dose from the energy spectrum of Ir-192 source. In our experiments with designed high dose rate brachytherapy source, the apparent activity of Ir-192 source was delivered from the 54.6 % of actual physical source activity through the self-absorption and encapsulation wall attenuations. This paper provides the 2-dimensional dose tabulation from unit apparent activity in a water medium for dose planning includes the multiple scattering, source anisotropy effect and geometric factors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.70-70
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• 2006

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.78-85
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• 2010

The compatibility with GammaMed-12i brachytherapy machine for an Ir-192 encapsulated source (IRRS20, KAERI, Korea) manufactured by Korea atomic energy research institute (KAERI) has been investigated. As a mechanical testing of compatibility, precise measurement of step movement with channels, measurement of curvature of radius for wire, and emergency return testing were performed. Periodic measurements of air kerma strength for 45 days were carried out to evaluate decay characteristics of Ir-192 radioisotope and comparison of dose distributions in phantom between KAERI and old sources previously used were performed by film dosimetry. KAERI source has a good compatibility with GammaMed12i machine as a result of mechanical testing. There are in good agreement with calculated values in activity characteristics and there were small differences in dose distributions around the source in comparison between KAERI and old source.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2009

This work is for the preliminary study for the calibration of an $^{192}Ir$ brachytherapy source based on an absorbed dose to water standards. In order to calibrate brachytherapy sources based on absorbed dose to water standards using a clyndirical ionization chamber, the beam quality correction factor $k_{Q,Q_0}$ is needed. In this study $k_{Q,Q_0}s$ were determined by both Monte carlo simulation and semiexperimental methods because of the realistic difficulties to use primary standards to measure an absolute dose at a specified distance. The 5 different serial numbers of the PTW30013 chamber type were selected for this study. While chamber to chamber variations ran up to maximum 4.0% with the generic $k^{gen}_{Q,Q_0}$, the chamber to chamber variations were within a maximum deviation of 0.5% with the individual $k^{ind}_{Q,Q_0}$. The results show why and how important ionization chambers must be calibrated individually for the calibration of $^{192}Ir$ brachytherapy sources based on absorbed dose to water standards. We hope that in the near future users will be able to calibrate the brachytherapy sources in terms of an absorbed dose to water, the quantity of interest in the treatment, instead of an air kerma strength just as the calibration in the high energy photon and electron beam.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.845-852
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• 2018

This study aimed to investigate the difference of X-ray exposure by comparing and analyzing absorbed dose according to changes in the number of frames in coronary angiography, also depending whether the zoom mode is FOV enlargement or Zoom Live. Moreover, for appropriate frame selection measures for examination, including the effect of frame change on the image quality, were sought by measuring the noise strength expressed by the standard deviation (SD), the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR). The study was conducted with an anthropomorphic phantom on an angio-system. The linear relationship between the frame rate and the radiation dose was evident. On the contrary, the indices of image quality (SD, SNR, and CNR) were almost constant irrespective of the number of frames. The difference depending on the zoom mode was not statistically significant for DAP, air kerma, and SD (p > 0.05). However, SNR and CNR were statistically different between FOV enlargement and Zoom Live. In conclusion, since the image quality was not degraded significantly with the decreasing frame rate from 30, 15, to 7.5 f/s and the radiation dose evidently decreases in almost exactly linear proportion to the decreasing frame rate, the number of frames per second needs to be maintained as low as reasonably achievable. As for the dependence on the zooming mode, the Live Zoom mode showed statistically significant improvement in the image quality indices of SNR and CNR and it justifies active use of the Live Zoom mode which enables real-time image enlargment without additional radiation dose.