1. Characterization of XR-RV3 GafChromic (R) films in standard laboratory and in clinical conditions and means to evaluate uncertainties and reduce errors
- Author
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Farah, Jad, Trianni, A., Ciraj-Bjelac, Olivera, Clairand, Isabelle, De Angelis, C., Delle Canne, S., Hadid, L., Huet, C., Jarvinen, Hannu, Negri, A., Novak, L., Pinto, M., Siiskonen, Teemu, Waryn, M. J., Knežević, Željka, Farah, Jad, Trianni, A., Ciraj-Bjelac, Olivera, Clairand, Isabelle, De Angelis, C., Delle Canne, S., Hadid, L., Huet, C., Jarvinen, Hannu, Negri, A., Novak, L., Pinto, M., Siiskonen, Teemu, Waryn, M. J., and Knežević, Željka
- Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the optimal use of XR-RV3 GafChromic (R) films to assess patient skin dose in interventional radiology while addressing the means to reduce uncertainties in dose assessment. Methods: XR-Type R GafChromic films have been shown to represent the most efficient and suitable solution to determine patient skin dose in interventional procedures. As film dosimetry can be associated with high uncertainty, this paper presents the EURADOS WG 12 initiative to carry out a comprehensive study of film characteristics with a multisite approach. The considered sources of uncertainties include scanner, film, and fitting-related errors. The work focused on studying film behavior with clinical high-dose-rate pulsed beams (previously unavailable in the literature) together with reference standard laboratory beams. Results: First, the performance analysis of six different scanner models has shown that scan uniformity perpendicular to the lamp motion axis and that long term stability are the main sources of scanner-related uncertainties. These could induce errors of up to 7% on the film readings unless regularly checked and corrected. Typically, scan uniformity correction matrices and reading normalization to the scanner-specific and daily background reading should be done. In addition, the analysis on multiple film batches has shown that XR-RV3 films have generally good uniformity within one batch ( LT 1.5%), require 24 h to stabilize after the irradiation and their response is roughly independent of dose rate ( LT 5%). However, XR-RV3 films showed large variations (up to 15%) with radiation quality both in standard laboratory and in clinical conditions. As such, and prior to conducting patient skin dose measurements, it is mandatory to choose the appropriate calibration beam quality depending on the characteristics of the x-ray systems that will be used clinically. In addition, yellow side film irradiations should be preferentially used since they showed a lower
- Published
- 2015