• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 2002

Purpose : 3D conformal radiotherapy, the optimum dose delivered to the tumor and provided the risk of normal tissue unless marginal miss, was restricted by organ motion. For tumors in the thorax and abdomen, the planning target volume (PTV) is decided including the margin for movement of tumor volumes during treatment due to patients breathing. We designed the respiratory gating radiotherapy device (RGRD) for using during CT simulation, dose planning and beam delivery at identical breathing period conditions. Using RGRD, reducing the treatment margin for organ (thorax or abdomen) motion due to breathing and improve dose distribution for 3D conformal radiotherapy. Materials and Methods : The internal organ motion data for lung cancer patients were obtained by examining the diaphragm in the supine position to find the position dependency. We made a respiratory gating radiotherapy device (RGRD) that is composed of a strip band, drug sensor, micro switch, and a connected on-off switch in a LINAC control box. During same breathing period by RGRD, spiral CT scan, virtual simulation, and 3D dose planing for lung cancer patients were peformed, without an extended PTV margin for free breathing, and then the dose was delivered at the same positions. We calculated effective volumes and normal tissue complication probabilities (NTCP) using dose volume histograms for normal lung, and analyzed changes in doses associated with selected NTCP levels and tumor control probabilities (TCP) at these new dose levels. The effects of 3D conformal radiotherapy by RGRD were evaluated with DVH (Dose Volume Histogram), TCP, NTCP and dose statistics. Results : The average movement of a diaphragm was 1.5 cm in the supine position when patients breathed freely. Depending on the location of the tumor, the magnitude of the PTV margin needs to be extended from 1 cm to 3 cm, which can greatly increase normal tissue irradiation, and hence, results in increase of the normal tissue complications probabiliy. Simple and precise RGRD is very easy to setup on patients and is sensitive to length variation (+2 mm), it also delivers on-off information to patients and the LINAC machine. We evaluated the treatment plans of patients who had received conformal partial organ lung irradiation for the treatment of thorax malignancies. Using RGRD, the PTV margin by free breathing can be reduced about 2 cm for moving organs by breathing. TCP values are almost the same values $(4\~5\%\;increased)$ for lung cancer regardless of increasing the PTV margin to 2.0 cm but NTCP values are rapidly increased $(50\~70\%\;increased)$ for upon extending PTV margins by 2.0 cm. Conclusion : Internal organ motion due to breathing can be reduced effectively using our simple RGRD. This method can be used in clinical treatments to reduce organ motion induced margin, thereby reducing normal tissue irradiation. Using treatment planning software, the dose to normal tissues was analyzed by comparing dose statistics with and without RGRD. Potential benefits of radiotherapy derived from reduction or elimination of planning target volume (PTV) margins associated with patient breathing through the evaluation of the lung cancer patients treated with 3D conformal radiotherapy.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.559-575
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose a horizontal/vertical calibration kit for calibrating a vector network analyzer(VNA) to measure the vertical connector pin. If the conventional calibration kit is used, we should change the arm for a probe or need an assistant device and it takes a long time. In addition there is a risk of precision degradation caused by the position change of the probe tip sensitive to the surroundings. We suggest a 4-port vertical calibration kit to make up for the aforementioned shortcomings. The calibration kit was manufactured for the SOLT calibration method. 'Short', 'Open', and 'Load' are available in the horizontal plane, 'Thru' is available not only in the horizontal plane on the two planes of a PCB, but in the vertical plane between the two planes according to the positions of the probes. We complemented the conventional calibration kit to make a vertical calibration kit to be used for the vertical measurement method. We compared and analysed their reflection/transfer characteristics of the SOLT calibration standards of the proposed calibration kit and conventional one, we get a ${\pm}0.1$ dB differences of transfer characteristics in the range from 300 kHz to 8.5 GHz. In order to demonstrate usefulness, and we performed a case study for horizontal and vertical cases, and compared the results of the proposed calibration kit and conventional one.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.100-109
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• 1999

Purpose: Preamplifier and amplifier are very important parts for developing a portable counting or imaging gamma probe. They can be used for analyzing pulses containing energy and position information for the emitted radiations. The commercial Nuclear Instrument Modules (NIMs) can be used for processing these pulses. However, it may be improper to use NIMs in developing a portable gamma probe, because of its size and high price. The purpose of this study was to develop both preamplifier and amplifier and measure their performance characteristics. Materials and Methods: The preamplifier and amplifier were designed as a charge sensitive device and a capacitor resistor-resistor capacitor (CR-RC) electronic circuit, respectively, and they were mounted on a print circuit board (PCB). We acquired and analyzed energy spectra for Tc-99m and Cs-137 using both PCB and NIMs. Multichannel analyzer (Accuspec/A, Canberra Industries Inc., Meriden Connecticut, U.S.A) and scintillation detectors (EP-047(Bicron Saint-Gobain/Norton Industrial EP-047 (Ceramics Co., Ohio, U.S.A) with $2"{\times}2"$ NaI(T1) crystal and R1535 (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Electron Tube Center, Shizuoka-ken, Japan) with $1"{\times}1"$ NaI(T1) crystal were used for acquiring the energy spectra. Results: Using PCB, energy resolutions of EP-047 detectors for Tc-99m and Cs-137 were 12.92% and 5.01%, respectively, whereas R1535 showed 13.75% and 5.19% of energy resolution. Using the NIM devices, energy resolutions of EP-047 detector for Tc-99m and Cs-137 were measured as 14.6% and 7.58%, respectively. However, reliable energy spectrum of R1535 detector could not be acquired, since its photomultiplier tube (PMT) requires a specific type of preamplifier. Conclusion: We developed a special preamplifier and amplifier suitable for a small sized gamma probe that showed good energy resolutions independent of PMT types. The results indicate that the PCB can be used in developing both counting and imaging gamma probe.