Determination of RW3-to-water mass-energy absorption coefficient ratio for absolute dosimetry.

The measurement of absorbed dose to water in a solid-phantom may require a conversion factor because it may not be radiologically equivalent to water. One phantom developed for the use of dosimetry is a solid water, RW3 white-polystyrene material by IBA. This has a lower mass-energy absorption coefficient than water due to high bremsstrahlung yield, which affects the accuracy of absolute dosimetry measurements. In this paper, we demonstrate the calculation of mass-energy absorption coefficient ratios, relative to water, from measurements in plastic water and RW3 with an Elekta Synergy linear accelerator (6 and 10 MV photon beams) as well as Monte Carlo modeling in BEAMnrc and DOSXYZnrc. From this, the solid-phantom-to-water correction factor was determined for plastic water and RW3.

The effects of field-of-view and patient size on CT numbers from cone-beam computed tomography.

Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is used for patient alignment before treatment and is ideal for use in adaptive radiotherapy to account for tumor shrinkage, organ deformation and weight loss. However, CBCT images are prone to artifacts such as streaking and cupping effects, reducing image quality and CT number accuracy. Our goal was to determine the optimum combination of cone-beam imaging options to increase the accuracy of image CT numbers. Several phantoms with and without inserts of known relative electron densities were imaged using the Varian on-board imaging system. It was found that CT numbers are most influenced by the selection of field-of-view and are dependent on object size and filter type. Image acquisition in half-fan mode consistently produced more accurate CT numbers, regardless of phantom size. Values measured using full-fan mode can differ by up to 7% from planning CT values. No differences were found between CT numbers of all phantom images with low and standard dose modes.

Refractometry of melanocyte cell nuclei using optical scatter images recorded by digital Fourier microscopy.

The cell nucleus is the dominant optical scatterer in the cell. Neoplastic cells are characterized by cell nucleus polymorphism and polychromism-i.e., the nuclei exhibits an increase in the distribution of both size and refractive index. The relative size parameter, and its distribution, is proportional to the product of the nucleus size and its relative refractive index and is a useful discriminant between normal and abnormal (cancerous) cells. We demonstrate a recently introduced holographic technique, digital Fourier microscopy (DFM), to provide a sensitive measure of this relative size parameter. Fourier holograms were recorded and optical scatter of individual scatterers were extracted and modeled with Mie theory to determine the relative size parameter. The relative size parameter of individual melanocyte cell nuclei were found to be 16.5+/-0.2, which gives a cell nucleus refractive index of 1.38+/-0.01 and is in good agreement with previously reported data. The relative size parameters of individual malignant melanocyte cell nuclei are expected to be greater than 16.5.

Refractometry of organosilica microspheres.

The refractive index of novel organosilica (nano/micro) material is determined using two methods. The first method is based on analysis of optical extinction efficiency of organosilica beads versus wavelength, which is obtained by a standard laboratory spectrometer. The second method relies on the measurable trapping potential of these beads in the focused light beam (laser tweezers). Polystyrene beads were used to test these methods, and the determined dispersion curves of refractive-index values have been found accurate. The refractive index of organosilica beads has been determined to range from 1.60 to 1.51 over the wavelength range of 300-1100 nm.